Mending Broken Hearts
by Percyfan1998
Summary: Ash Ketchum can deal with losing a match, those are loses he can get a second chance at. But when he misses somewhere else, he might not get that second chance...or will he? Cover art by Risuuu. Pokeshipping, formerly Orangeshipping.
1. Prologue

**MENDING BROKEN HEARTS**

 _By David Hanson_

 _ **Prologue**_

 _I can't help but feel this is so wrong, as you and I, and Brock, walk down this road, to the crossroad where we need to separate. This is so unfair, and not only that, but Brock has to leave now as well… I… I just… I just don't know what to do with myself now - you've always been by my side, ever since Viridian where you nearly killed me because I stole your bike and Pikachu fried it up. I… I know I just called you my best friend, but honestly, whatever this weird feeling is in my chest, my heart, for you… it feels empty. I'll miss you, so, so much… and yes, I'll take care of myself, don't worry, I know my own morning routine._

 _Well, we tried at first to say goodbye, but then you both showed up again, apparently you both forgot something. I wish I could give you both something in return, for all the fun times, the memories, saving my life… well, you guys better get going, I… can't stand this pain anymore, just go! The sound of you pedaling away with your fixed bike only furthers the pain I'm feeling right now, this really is goodbye..._

 _Curse your sisters for having to go and making you do their work in their place… I took off running for home, I can't stand this, I should've said something to you, I don't want you to go, but you have to, I know you, you'll be at the gym, training to become the water Pokémon master you always talked about becoming…_

 _It's for the best my mind tells me, but my heart… wants you to come back… even as I'm running now, screaming goodbye into thin air, and crying, I think I'm starting to realize something…_

 _I… I think… I… love you, Misty… goodbye… only for now… please Mew only for now…_


	2. I was the Last to Know

**Part One – A Hurt Heart**

 _ **I was the Last to Know**_

A youth with brown eyes, raven black hair, and a signature Pokémon league cap smiled as he approached a cliff overlooking a quaint little town coastal town filled with cropped farm lands, It was made mostly of white wooden cottages, a small town square with shopping amenities. The town in question was also home to a small ocean wharf, and it was also home to the Kanto region's famous Professor Samuel Oak. But for the boy the place was simply… home sweet home.

"Look Pikachu," the youth said fondly, "I see Pallet Town."

"Pika chu," chirped his Pokémon.

"Seems like we've been gone for a long time, huh? Doesn't look like much has changed," he said, and began the walk down the path towards his home.

Ash Ketchum couldn't help but be ecstatic at finally reaching Pallet Town once again. He was back from the Hoenn region where he had met new friends and caught new Pokémon, the experience was one he would not soon forget. But during all that time, Ash's thoughts tended to drift to someone…

"Pika, Pikapi, Pika chu chu pika pika chu pika cha pika Pikachupi?" _Hey, Ash, when are you planning to go see Misty?_

"Um… after we see Mom and the other Pokémon back at the lab, buddy," Ash muttered, blushing at her name. "Don't get me wrong – I really, _really_ would like to go see her as soon as possible. But I promised Mom and Professor Oak we'd come home straight away, no detours."

"Pika pika chu cha pika, Pikapi." _And yet you took one at a gym, Ash._

"Well," Ash mumbled, "how could I have turned down a battle against Agatha, a member of the Elite Four…?" Pikachu just rolled his eyes.

"Pikachupi pika pik pikachu pipika, Pikapi." _Misty would call you inattentive then, Ash_.

"Yeah… she probably would say that."

It wasn't a secret, ever since that fateful sad afternoon about a year ago; Ash had never been the same. Sure he functioned well enough with Brock and Pikachu still by his side, but without Misty around to argue with, share jabs, or simply pass the time with – either stargazing or eating ice cream together. Ash felt incomplete, he felt like a part of him had been taken away, and he had had quite a bit of time to think about why. At first he thought the melancholy would pass but it didn't, instead it sent him into strange dreams and visions. He dared to blame it on a crush, which even now he had a hard time admitting to, purely out of pride.

He knew something was wrong when his heard felt somber when they left each other, the awkwardness continued when her image stayed in his mind throughout his Hoenn journey. He had to tell her how he felt, and if she didn't feel the same, well… he'd rather not think about it, because the very idea upset him more than he wanted to admit…

"Hey, anybody home?" Ash called, as he finally entered through his home's front door.

"I'll be right down, honey!" his mom's voice called melodiously. Ash was pleased to hear his mom's voice in person once again. But as he closed the door, another female voice called to him…

"Welcome home, Ash." And there she was – new yellow clothes and all, Misty Waterflower. "It's been a long time, huh? Hi there, Pikachu."

"Y-yeah, uh, hi," Ash stammered, stunned. _WHAT WAS SHE DOING AT HIS HOUSE_?! Was the first thought that came to him.

"Pikachupi!" Pikachu meanwhile cried out happily.

"This is a surprise, Misty," Ash murmured. The situation was _extremely_ left field, he had been planning to see her after this, but it seemed she came to him. _Is… Is this a sign?_

"Professor Oak told me you were coming home, so I came to say hi," Misty explained. It was then his mom came over and exchanged greetings with her son. Ash couldn't help but beam at the warm welcome.

He hugged his mom, and then greeted Mr. Mime warmly. He then tried hugging Misty as well. Ash felt himself heat up as he wrapped his arms around her, his face a blushing mess. He felt so happy, but then… she didn't return the hug. In fact, as soon as he realized he was the only one hugging her, Ash looked up and found she seemed a bit, if not _very_ … uncomfortable with his gesture.

"Um…" Misty began, sticking her hands out onto his shoulder to push him back – Ash suddenly felt very put off. "It's great to see you too," she continued plainly, sticking her hand out. He was perplexed, the two friends hadn't talked in a long while, and she _only_ wanted to shake hands?

Ash took hers in his, and once again, the warmth returned for him, but then… Ash noticed something off again. Long ago the two shook hands the day before they had to battle each other at the Whirl Cup, and that had been a warm handshake. But this one, it was cold – there was no feeling. It was as if he was just meeting her for the first time and knew nothing about her.

Ash's insides churned with fear. He didn't know what to do, or what to say.

It was then he noticed a small blue mouse Pokémon waltz right in front of Misty. "Azu, Azurill!" it cheeped. Ash became instantly interested – the sight of new Pokémon always cheered him up.

"Aw, hey, it's an Azurill," he remarked, leaning down to take a closer look. Misty giggled – it sent a shiver down his spine – as she picked Azurill up.

"Heh heh. Isn't it the cutest? _Tracey_ gave it to me when it was just an egg. I brought it along so Professor Oak could see." Ash could've sworn… he saw something about Misty's face that seemed off when she said the Pokémon Watcher's name, something that seemed very odd… Misty had never said Tracey's name the way she did just now, what was going on...

Ash was about to ask about it when Delia said that she had just finished preparing supper, all of his favorites at that too. The prospect of a home-cooked meal cheered him up, Pikachu cheered with him. Misty just rolled her eyes, "Some things always will stay the same, I guess…" she said. Ash became alarmed, she sounded… disappointed in that, and what did she mean by it? That ' _some things always will stay the same'_ …?! Ash was beginning to see that things were _very_ off.

He was about to question this choice of words when suddenly a cars horn sounded off. He went to open the door. It was Professor Birch, and he was joined by Max. Once more Ash couldn't help but feel overwhelmed as he invited the two into his house. But even as the two new arrivals conversed happily with his mom, Ash just couldn't seem to talk to Misty; she either busied herself with Azurill, his mom, the Professor, or Max, much to his displeasure.

Ash went to bed that night, without even so much as a goodnight from her, and proceeded into an uncomfortable sleep, in his _own bed_ at _home_ …

 **O** o **O** o **O**

It wasn't any different next day. Misty's 'good morning' greeting was dry with him, as was her good morning for everyone else, aside from his mom's. It was as if their near three years of travelling together meant nothing to her...

Professor Birch said first thing that he was off to meet Professor Oak that morning, but he still had to go and do a check of his material and print any stragglers. The Professor disappeared upstairs to go sort out his bag, and Ash agreed to watch Max whilst he did so, but it was then the raven Trainer noticed something odd.

Misty already had her pack on, and Azurill comfortably settled in her arms, and was opening the door. "Misty!" Ash called to her, alarmed.

"Huh?" she jumped, and turned around, as if she was a child getting caught by her parents whilst sneaking off somewhere.

"Y-you're not leaving yet, are you?" Ash asked, upset that she would sneak off like that.

"Huh? Oh, n-no. I was off to Professor Oak's laboratory."

This made Ash even more confused, Professor Birch just said he was off to see the famous Professor; surely it would be better if they went as a group. "But why alone?" Ash questioned out loud to her.

"Um… Well," she began, looking clearly uncomfortable with the question. "N-no reason I guess, just instinct, I suppose…"

"J… j-just instinct?" Ash questioned carefully.

"Yeah… Just something you learn to do by yourself when no one else is around," Misty answered. Ash felt a pang in his chest at those words. The words replayed heavily on his mind, was that her way of telling him that he didn't call her often enough? Ash couldn't help but want to apologize right then – maybe that had been the problem? Maybe she was just lonely and thought he didn't care about her anymore.

"Misty, I'm sorry I-"

"No, Ash," she quickly cut in, holding a spare hand out to halt his words. He gazed at her, stunned. "You're right – it would be rude of me to not wait for the Professor. Besides…" Ash couldn't help but believe then that she wanted to catch up now, but… "… I could tell Max all about Cerulean City. I'm sure he'd love to hear all about it." And she hurried off to sit next to Max on the couch, brushing past Ash, and once again, he felt that strange coldness he had first felt the day before.

Forgotten about – that was the sensation he had begun to feel, and it felt terrible.

 **O** o **O** o **O**

The journey to Professor Oak's lab was a mundane and boring one. When Ash went to knock on the door, both Professor Oak and Tracey came out to greet them, but when they did, Ash once again noticed something.

When Tracey looked down to see Ash, Ash immediately noticed that Tracey was… surprised. What did the sketcher have to be surprised about? Ash felt like stumbling the moment he sensed something off about Tracey's stare, but then the sketcher quickly recovered and smiled at him. Ash blinked at that, it seemed everything was off with the people he knew.

"Hey Tracey…" Ash began awkwardly, "been a long time since we've talked."

"Uh…yeah…"

"Yeah…" Ash said, frowning, "it's weird, isn't it? Every time I called, the Professor always said you were too busy to talk…"

Tracey's face seemingly faltered a bit at that remark before he began scratching his neck awkwardly, "Uh heh-heh! Yeah…y'know? Working with Professor Oak can keep a guy _busy_ , yeah…"

"Yeah…" Ash murmured, a strange foreboding sense came over him as he looked into Tracey's eyes. Something was off, and Ash didn't like it.

Professor Oak and Birch meanwhile began their chit-chat, and the Hoenn region Professor had pulled a few of his papers out that he wanted to discuss with the Kanto-based Professor. Both agreed to go up to Professor Oak's main office to continue their discussion. But as they did, Professor Oak remarked to Tracey about tending to the starter Pokémon upstairs, Max being his usual self, wanted to meet said starter Pokémon and raced off.

Ash was about to join him to tell Max about the starters, but Misty stopped him, directly stepping in front of him. "Oh Ash, wouldn't it be better if you went to go talk to Professor Oak?" she asked.

"But… that's what Professor Birch is here to do," Ash said, trying to look past Misty's shoulders to the staircase, leading up to where he remembered getting his first Pokémon.

"True, but _you're_ the one who travelled all over Hoenn. I'm sure the Professor would be _very_ interested in hearing all about your experiences," Misty went on. For some reason, Ash didn't get the sense that she was committed to her words.

"I'd rather go stay to look after Max," he said uneasily, about to scooch past her, but she held on and stopped him.

"No," Misty said, a little too loudly, "me and Tracey can watch Max; you go on ahead with the Professors."

Pikachu, who had been observing the awkward exchange, was about to hop down and go upstairs, but Misty addressed him quickly. "Oh, Pikachu! Accompany Ash will you? I'm not sure if Ash is able to handle not getting into trouble, even with the Professors around!" she said, her tone suggesting she meant it when it came to Ash's own common sense.

Ash grimaced, he was perfectly capable of not getting into trouble on his own. "B-but I…!" he began, frustrated.

"We'll be fine, all good and ship shaped!" Misty called back, ushering Tracey up the stairs, leaving Ash in a daze.

"Wh…what just happened…?"

"Pi…ika…" The two friends merely lowered their heads, and walked off for the office…

Things got interesting when May suddenly showed up. For Ash, May's timing couldn't have been more inconvenient. He was hoping to confront Misty when he and the Professors got upstairs, but when they came upstairs, they found May comforting a Squirtle in her arms, Max looking upset, and Misty and Tracey just staring at the scene.

When that issue was sorted, May and Max wanted Ash to give them a tour of the facility. "Sure!" Ash said, he turned and noticed Misty talking to Tracey. "Hey Misty! Want to join us for a tour?"

To Ash's surprise however, Misty then suddenly avoided eye contact, his own eyes slightly wavering as she ignored him. "Um… No thanks," she said, "I think I'll stay here."

"Yeah," Tracey remarked, Ash noticed the sketcher's shoulders slightly tense up when he addressed him, "I need to work on a few things here, and Misty wants to help me out with it."

"I could help too," Ash offered. "What do you need done…?"

"No!" Misty suddenly shouted, that stopped Ash in his tracks, his breath caught in his throat. "We… don't need someone like you messing up with the Professor's paperwork. You're too clumsy for _that_ sort of work, Ash. You act too much like a kid to handle this," she ended joke fully.

"I…" Ash began, a pit forming in his stomach and chest made him feel like he was in a void – a void of confusion. Nothing was normal here.

"If we finish early I'll come out and meet you," Misty said. That made Ash feel a bit better, but it still upset him. What was stranger, he noticed once again that Tracey too was behaving only and was avoiding eye contact.

"O-okay…" Ash said, and with one last disconcerted look over his shoulder he led May and Max outside…

 **O** o **O** o **O**

Ash wasn't going to lie, he was terrified. Something was off about Misty and Tracey, they seemed so eager for him to not be around, it unnerved him. They were all friends, the Orange Island trio, he hadn't even been gone for that long from them to make a different. It was a full year since Johto since he had left in April, and now it was spring again. Ash wasn't sure of a cause for Misty to suddenly avoid him, he thought it might've been because of his lack of calls, but that couldn't be the case. The friends they made throughout their journeys came and went – trainers like Ritchie and Casey notably – but when they reunited with them on the road Misty didn't get angry when _they_ disappeared.

Ash shook away the thoughts; he didn't want to dwell on them. Instead, he looked around and saw Snorlax, that would be a perfect distraction. But during the reunion with the hibernating Pokémon, a whole stampede of his Pokémon suddenly appeared lead by Bulbasaur. In the midst of it all, his Taurus charged him and ended up carrying him away!

They charged along the ranch, Ash was in a panic, "C'mon Taurus let me down! I'm happy to see you guys too- Huh?!" He saw something that made him forget his current situation… Misty and Tracey were walking around. Ash was surprised, she had just said that Tracey and her had papers to sort out, but then why were they so far from the lab? He squinted, and for a moment saw something that stopped his heart…

But he didn't even have the time to process what he had seen, because suddenly his trance was broken as the Taurus under him got pelted by Tracey's Marill's Water Gun. The Tauros reared and Ash was thrown into the air, but before he could hit the ground, Bayleaf caught him with her vines.

"Thanks, Bayleef," Ash muttered gratefully, the grass Pokémon responded in kind and began to nuzzle Ash affectionately. "H-hey, knock it off," he grumbled, he didn't have time for this, he needed to…

He looked up to see Misty and Tracey approaching him; his eyes narrowed slightly at the sight, the blurry image from before came back to him – it was now burned into his mind.

"Are you all right?" Misty questioned.

"Yeah, of course," Ash murmured, eying her warily. "My Taurus are about as powerful as I've ever seen them."

"You do know that Pokémon tend to act like their trainers, right? And I know a certain trainer who's been running wild."

Ash raised an eyebrow. "You do now huh…? Hey… I thought you two were meant to be at the lab?"

"Oh? Um, well…" Misty stammered, she tightened her arms around Azurill nervously.

"…And you said you had important papers to look after," Ash went on, the bitterness coming out. "What are you doing out here Misty? You've been acting strange ever since yesterday! What are hiding from me exac-?"

"Hey Ash!" Max's voice suddenly called out to him, and once again Ash found himself getting distracted from the pressing issue…

The distractions lasted all day, the Squirtle from before ran into May's arms. Ash brought out his Hoenn friends to meet his old ones, and then Team Rocket attacked… for Ash, this wasn't out of the ordinary, but whatever was happening with Misty was…

He avoided her for the rest of the day, and she did the same.

 **O** o **O** o **O**

"Well I think this as far as we're getting today!" Brock announced. "Nothing like camping back here in Kanto, ah… here's a real nice spot. Max, would you mind helping me set up the fire?" And with that Brock plopped down his travelling bag and immediately set to work with Max.

The breeder had travelled all the way down to Pallet and met the group before they left in the morning. As expected, he was hyped to be on the road, and was even more excited by the prospect of travelling with his two longtime friends once more, even if it was temporary. For Ash, this reunion was both a blessing, and a curse. On one hand, it was good to see Brock again, it also helped that he had someone else to talk to aside from Max and May, as Misty was still giving him a cold shoulder.

But Brock's presence reminded Ash of an old feeling, that strange sense of being able to take on anything when the three of them were together. A feeling Ash didn't want anymore – because it felt like Misty didn't know him anymore, and that she didn't want to either.

The worst part was that, Brock, May, and Max _all_ seemed oblivious to the strange lack of talking between Ash and the water-trainer. They didn't even try to converse, yet he still chose to look at her, but only Azurill seemed to ever look back at him. Misty never even glanced in his direction.

During their walk Brock provided Ash the chance to keep his mind of off his feelings. He made sure he remained fully invested in every word Brock said, or paid attention solely to the road if Brock chose to talk to May or Max. They ended up making it halfway through Viridian Forest by nightfall.

The group ate dinner around the campfire peacefully, but unfortunately, Brock began making small talk with Misty. She, unlike she was with Ash, replied kindly to everything Brock said. It annoyed Ash greatly.

"She'll talk to Mom… Max… May… even you Pikachu," he grumbled lowly to his starter Pokémon. "But talking to me…? Nope… her _best friend_ isn't going to get so much as a word, it's like I don't even exist…"

"Pikapi… pika Pikachu."

Later Ash watched disdainfully as Misty spoke with the rest of the group, but when it came to him, not even so much as a friendly glance came his direction.

He wasn't going to stand for it any longer.

"…And so that's when Pikachu lost to Meowth!" Max finished, ending his tale about Ash's loss at the Hoenn League.

"Wow," Misty muttered, "fancy losing to a Meowth of all Pokémon." Ash held his head down, ashamed and embarrassed.

"Ah well," Brock chipped in, "it was a good battle all the same. Ooh! Want to hear about Ludicolo and Mudkip, Misty?"

"Oh yeah!" Max said, turning towards the orange headed girl's direction. "Ash told us so much about how you love water-types! Wait till you hear about-"

"No thanks," Misty cut in. The others stared, quite taken aback, Ash's eyes narrowed; normally Misty wasn't one to miss out on new water-types…

"I just want to turn in early for the night," she went on, yawning and stretching.

"Night," they all said to her, sans Ash. Misty then stood up and began to walk away.

"Night Brock… night Max… night May…" Misty rambled as she stood up. "Oh! And goodnight Pikachu."

 _No goodnight for me…?_ Ash stared as she walked away, he plucked up courage the moment she only thought of his partner and not him.

"Misty, hold it!" he yelled, standing up.

Brock, Max and May stared at Ash, obviously not expecting his sudden outburst. "Hey!" he called out when Misty didn't answer him and just kept walking. Ash's eyes shimmered and a distraught look came over him, trembling he yelled a little louder, "MISTY, ANSWER ME PLEASE!"

Finally she turned around. "What?" she asked dryly.

"W-what is going on with you?" Ash asked, the desperation clear in his voice, his hands quivering. "Ever since I got back you've been ignoring me. It's like you don't want to do _anything_ with me around. You came to say 'welcome home' and that was all you were planning to do. You've barely acknowledged me if much at all, heck it's like I didn't exist at all to you back at Professor's Oak's coral. You wanted to go ahead to the Professor's without any of us, and you even _lied_ about being busy with Tracey at the lab so you could get me away!"

By this point Ash's eyes well fully welled up, his whole body was trembling, and his gaze was locked on Misty. "Tell it to me straight…" he said hoarsely, "because for the past twenty-four hours it's like we're total strangers to each other. Are we even still considered 'friends,' Mist?"

"You want a straight answer?" Misty finally answered, Ash nodded. "Yes, we're _friends_ Ash. But things have changed, they've changed a lot."

"Ch-changed…? W-w-what you do you mean by that? You just said we were friends and well-"

"Well that's just it, Ash," Misty cut in. "We all have to move along with our lives at some point, you know we're not children anymore, we're teens. We're both close to our fourteenth birthdays and that's-"

"But what does that have anything to do with what we're talking about now?" Ash cried out.

"Everything," Misty answered. "Ash, we're old enough to start taking our futures seriously – and I can't stand being alone at the gym with my sisters." Misty then took a deep breath and stared at Ash. "After we left to go our own ways I've been thinking about the people who matter in my life the _most_ , especially when I realized how quickly change could come about. There's a new boy in my life who means something to me now. Someone I value as more than a friend." Misty began to blush as she finished, Ash felt short of breath looking at it, but with each word she was saying, he felt colder, like his heart was freezing over. It was something he felt before, but more intense. He couldn't speak; anything that he wanted to say was lodged in his throat.

Misty began to finish what she started. "He's been there for me every step of the past year, supporting me as I got use to my new role as a Gym Leader and all of my other responsibilities. I never knew he could care so much about me from day to day, and I realized that I was beginning to feel the same way about him.

"Everyone," she called out, so everyone knew she was now talking to them as well. When she had everyone's attention, she smiled warmly. "I'm in love, in love with Tracey, and he loves me back. Me and him, we're dating now."

Ash gasped, and felt as though the world had just collapsed beneath him, he took a few unsteady steps back, shocked. He stared, and felt a strong chill overcoming him, like he was stuck in limbo… he tried taking a step forward, but was trapped, like he feet were frozen in place. Ash felt a stinging sensation in his eyes, and his chest felt like an empty cavity.

"Wha… M-Misty…?" he tried to say, but the moment he tried leaning forward, all of a sudden – instead of being a few feet away from him – before him flashed an entire ocean, thousands of miles of cold sea water stood between him and her, somehow she was within eye sight, but was just a speck. He was numbed.

"Oh my God!" May yelled out suddenly, she raced past Ash causing him to fumble and took a few more steps back; his breath was shaky as he tried processing what was happening to him. "Misty! Wow! I had a suspicion back at the lab!" she cheered as she got up close to Misty and grabbed the orange haired girl's hand.

Ash's eyes widened, May saw it? But Tracey… Misty… they were just friends, sure they acted weird but, he never would've guessed it was… then, it hit him.

"I mean," May went on, "the proximity… the fact that you kept sitting next to him… I even saw that sometimes you two were holding hands!"

Ash felt as though a spear struck him from the back. Of course, how could he be so stupid? He thought he had been imagining all those hints, he had convinced himself that he had been misinterpreting a simple passing of an item between them, but no. He saw it, in that split second when he looked up while riding Taurus, Misty and Tracey were holding hands… his fist curled up.

"Wow…" Brock murmured as he approached her. "I had no idea! To think, _you_ got a boyfriend before I could even get into a relationship. Amazing, and I'M SO JEALOUS AGH!"

"Oh brother…" Misty sighed before smiling again. "But yeah, it sure is great! We've… been at it for a while now, not long before I came to see you and Ash in Hoenn."

"Wow, that long?" May asked.

"Yeah, not long after an incident with mine and Daisy's Luvidiscs. It just sorta…happened."

Ash knew his eyes were tearing up, but anything he wanted to say was caught in his throat, he felt like he was choking. He wanted to yell an objection, but when his eyes caught Misty's smile as she talked about everything that had happened, but he found no will in him to say anything.

"Although…" Misty continued. "We're still getting use to things, so that's why I've kept so quiet about it, and why I chose to be with him more, so we could have the chance to bond. He cares about me, amazingly our interests' line up as well. He shows interest in romantic things like I do…"

Ash felt stabbed at that, he _never_ cared about anything romantic…

"…Likes water Pokémon like me – hence why he gave me Azurill…"

 _But… I let you have Togepi…_

"…Comforted me after I lost Togepi…"

 _Oh wait, I forgot about that…_

"…Cares about Pokémon the same way I do. And he's always flattering me with sketches he's made of me, even ones from when we were travelling together on the Orange Islands… and as I said, he's there when I need him to, and oh the way he kisses me... I just feel so…so secure with him, like he's the one."

Ash held back his tears, he wiped his eyes quick, and he managed to do so without attracting any attention, which was the last thing he needed. Of course…how could he be so stupid, he was a traveler, and that he never wanted to remain idle. But Tracey, that's what got to him, it made sense, the sketcher made a name for himself by rooting down at Professor Oak's, and as friends he had a right to visit Misty all the time. But Ash just couldn't believe that Tracey could woo her, but then…why was he kept out of the loop? Surely he had a right to know…

"Oh will you stop talking about that gross icky junk!" Max suddenly snapped, he was still by the fire. Misty glared at him for a bit before he looked away with dignity. "Yeah yeah… it's cool you got a boyfriend but what's wrong with wanting to talk about Pokémon?"

"Heh…" Brock chuckled, sweat dropping. "Well, you can't have everything, can you?"

"I am so sorry Misty for the way my brother just acted; please forgive him, he's stupid and a know-it-all," May immediately began.

"Hey! I resent that, sis! Not my fault I'm not into your love junk!"

"Siblings… what I wouldn't know about them…" Misty chuckled to herself.

"Pah…you girls are all the same…" he huffed. Max then looked around and spotted Ash. Knowing the raven trainer the way he did, Max figured Ash would sympathize with his point of view. "So Ash," he called out, breaking Ash out of his trance, but before he could ask, he was rudely interrupted.

"Oh yeah," Brock began, unaware of Max's glare at him, "Ash, you've known Tracey a lot longer than I have. What do you make of him and Misty being together anyways?"

Ash stared, conflicted, he froze when he saw Misty looking at him. Her eyes unreadable, something about that wasn't pleasant.

"Please, I think with Ash, the answer is fairly obvious," Max said confidently. "Ash, doesn't the idea of getting together with somebody sound stupid or what? I mean, what could be better than just being friends and exploring the world? I mean after all, you said it yourself, 'No sense going out of your way just to get the attention of someone you like'. I mean you totally hit the nail on the head with that one, Ash."

Ash gasped, his own words used against him! It was lucky he wasn't being external about what he was thinking. He noted that Misty's look seemed to have dissipated. "Well," she said calmly, "that sounds like Ash all right."

"Yeah…" Brock muttered.

"That's our Ash," May agreed. They didn't know it, but their words felt like massive ice cubes landing on his chest.

Misty kept her indifference up and began to walk away, Ash watched her with a longing stare, she was walking all right, it looked like it was right out of his soul too.

"I need to take care of a few things real quick, night everyone," she said, looking at everyone but him, again. Ash couldn't say anything as he watched her go; he couldn't deny what he had said, everyone was quite sure that he would keep to that opinion. The problem was, his opinion had changed, if only in a small way.

His fists curled up, an unfamiliar feeling of loathing came over him.

"So," Brock began, "I guess this would be a great time to go to bed, huh?" The two Maple siblings agreed to this, Ash did too.

But sleep didn't come to him at all. He kept tossing and turning around. _Tracey… why Tracey…?_

He stood up, thinking that a quick walk would do his mind some good. But when he stood, he caught site of Misty and all of his fears came crashing back down on him. He saw her face, her lips, and images of them being kissed by Tracey and her body being held by him struck a nerve in Ash, it angered and upset him all at the same time.

His breathing became erratic and a rush of energy came to his legs. Instinct told him to run, run now, get away, away from _her_ …

And Ash did so, lowering his head and gritting his teeth he turned in the opposite direction and took off as fast as he could. He couldn't stand to look at her, because when he did, he wanted to get close, but knew he couldn't, he needed this distance. His sudden dash caught the attention of Pikachu, had almost dozed off.

"Pikapi?" he muttered, before shaking himself awake and began to chase after his trainer.

Ash didn't care at all about where he was going, he was going to go as fast as his mind deemed necessary, the night was almost blinding, just like the latest revelation. "Why in hell him?" he choked as he ran.

Eventually Ash reached a clearing and slowed down. He fell down to his knees and punched the grass as hard as he could. Ash let out a painful scream into the sky before falling down on his arms. He began to shake.

"Why…?" he said miserably to the ground, as stinging salty tears began to fall, his hand grabbing furiously as the blades of grass. "Why him? It's not fair, I wanted a chance, but she…he… they didn't even bother to say anything! What does Tracey have that I don't?" he yelled hopelessly into the bare night. The emptiness and silence of the night served to only remind him that this issue was bigger than anything he had faced before, and it was one he didn't know the solution to.

"What did I do to deserve to be lied to…?" it was then that Pikachu caught up and immediately began to comfort Ash. "She lied, Pikachu," Ash said bitterly, "she came to see Tracey, not you or me, we were nothing more than an afterthought. She… Misty… she…" he choked, he found the words painful, they tugged at his heart. "…Misty…s-she…loves him, she loves Tracey. So much so she won't even look at me! She…she'll never love me…" Ash finished, looking down at the dark forest floor. This kind of defeat, was one he was never prepared for.

 **O** o **O** o **O**

 **Authors Note:** Hey everyone! Welcome to my big project for the summer with this project of mine. Special shout outs to UltimateBman from the Pokeshipping Discord for beta reading this.

Fun fact, there's a game you guys can have with these stories, every title is a lyric to a song, your task is to name the song, and the artist(s) in the review section and in the next chapter first ones to get it right get a special shout out, good luck :).


	3. You Were so Happywith Some Other Guy

_**You Were so Happy… with Some Other Guy**_

A few hours later Ash returned back to camp and went immediately to bed. Next day he refused to say anything at all. It was to the point that it became a concern for Brock and May, they watched as Ash said nothing to Misty, and vice versa. Max seemed oblivious to the tension.

When they got through Mt. Moon after an endeavor involving a lost Cleffa and Team Rocket's usual shenanigans, Max began to develop a deep respect for Misty when they realized that they both had older sister problems. It wasn't long after that however when Max started to catch on to what was happening. After Misty left, they all noticed Ash's face became a lot darker than usual.

Anytime they would mention Misty or the past 72 hours he'd become more irritable, he would walk faster or start talking about something else or would scoff and ignore them. His tone dripped with sarcasm and acted very hostile, so they decided to drop the topic. They all tried asking him what was the matter, but Ash refused to answer.

They all became even more concerned when they watched him train his Pokémon later that week. "Grovyle! Bullet Seed on Corphish!" he yelled. Despite that they all knew that Ash's Corphish tended to be hardy, they were rather disturbed that Ash was being more intense with the water-type than usual, subjecting the Ruffian Pokémon to various strong – if not super effective – attacks.

"Phish!" Corphish cried out as the Wood Gecko Pokémon's strong grass attack struck him. Ash just watched with a hard stare.

 _Misty always boasted how water-types were the best_ … he thought bitterly, it was because of his friend's high opinion of them that caused Ash to suddenly feel the need to push Corphish even more harder than usual. _I'll show her_ … _she thinks that just because Tracey has a Marill and that I lost a battle to her that I'm no good with water-types! Grr…I'll show her that I'm just as good a trainer she is_ …

It was an odd string of thought, but it wasn't without merit. What Misty had said to him those few nights ago angered Ash. It wasn't his fault he was always away, he questioned why that should've mattered at all – and if she had needed someone's support, she could've easily called him. Heck, he called her his best friend, yet she went off and kept her relationship a secret from him, it was as if she was saying he wasn't worth it. Well, he wasn't going to stand for that, he'd show her.

"Cor…" Corphish groaned.

"Harden, Corphish," the Ruffian Pokémon did as told. "Now use multiple Aerial Aces, Swellow!"

His friends watched on, dismayed. "This is absurd," Brock murmured.

"It won't be long before Corphish will be knocked out. He can only stand so many attacks, even with the Defense boosts," Max agreed.

May couldn't stand to watch the training session any further. "Ash!" she yelled, "Stop this! Stop it right now! Can't you see Corphish is in pain?! This is too much, this isn't _you_! Ash, stop it!" she yelled at the top of her voice.

May's rise in volume and the meaning behind her words must've worked, because the once cold and angry expression on Ash's face melted away as he processed what she just said to him. Ash then turned to Corphish who looked exhausted and ready to faint. Meanwhile Swellow was u-turning in the air and was about to strike again when Ash noticed this and panicked, he had to stop this.

"Stop, Swellow!" Ash suddenly called out. The Swallow Pokémon quickly opened its wings and halted its assault on Corphish, the Ruffian Pokémon breathed a sigh of relief before kicking to the side and fainted. "C-Corphish are you all right?" Ash asked worriedly. He felt a bit better when Corphish managed a weak smile and nod for him before closing its eyes once more. Brock quickly came towards them and began to administer health care to it.

Ash stepped back, sighed, and quietly made his eyes disappear under the brim of his hat as he went to go stand to the side. He felt so stupid, what had he been thinking training Corphish like that? It wasn't him, it wasn't the way _Misty_ taught…. _Crap, don't think about her dude!_ Ash inwardly scolded himself, just the very thought of _her_ was enough to upset him.

"Okay then, Ash," May began as she walked up behind where Ash stood, "how about you explain why you were being so hard on Corphish?"

"I don't want to talk about it," Ash replied glumly. He refused to turn around.

"I'm not buying that, Ash. Something's up with you, you've been cold, distant, and generally unpleasant to be with," May snapped back. "What happened to you? You use to be cheerier, fun to be with, and you certainly weren't training like this," she accused, turning her head towards where Corphish was resting. But Ash remained silent, May didn't see it, but he began to tremble. "And that reminds me of another thing," May went on, "just what _really_ happened to you? A few days ago you were fine, but ever since Misty showed up you…"

"I said I don't want to talk about it!" Ash suddenly thundered at her, the very mention of Misty by name infuriating him as he turned to face May.

May was shocked; she took a moment to regain her bearings. "But when Misty…"

"I said I don't want to talk about it!"

"But Ash," May responded, she started to quiver fearfully, Ash's hard glare was scaring her, "we're just a bit worried because you haven't been the same since we left Professor Oak's laboratory and well now…"

"I'm just having a bad day, okay?"

"Well that's the thing, isn't it?"

"Oh really, some 'thing'?" Ash snapped sarcastically. "Oh, pray tell May, _what_ thing is it?"

"Well… it's just that you have been angrier lately…"

"Well you're making me angrier now as it is! So just drop it already!"

"Woah… easy Ash," Brock cut in as he joined May. "May just is wondering what happened, that's all."

"Well _I_ _don't_ want to talk about what happened, and that's final! As if anything happened! I don't feel anything as happened so there!"

"But Ash…" May interjected. "It's just that…"

"Just what, May? Just what exactly?!" Ash rallied as he trembled, it took a lot of willpower to not get up in front of May's face as he said that.

"Ash!" Brock roared. "Calm down and just…!"

"Knock it off!" Ash yelled back suddenly, as tears started to run down his face in fury. "I don't want to talk about it, so just leave me alone!" With that Ash quickly turned on his heel and began to run.

"Ash!" May yelled and was about to run after Ash, but Brock stopped her.

Ash's remaining Pokémon quickly tried to chase after him, but stopped when Brock ordered them to.

"Brock, why?" May yelled. "Let me go!"

"I don't like any of this either," Brock began, "but given his state of mind I think it's best we leave Ash alone. It's obvious that whatever is troubling him is something he just isn't comfortable talking about, and that whatever it is, it's really taking a toll on him…" he ended ominously, turning to the direction Ash ran to…

 **O** o **O** o **O**

Ash fled to a clearing, his mind burdened by what he had done to his Pokémon, it wasn't fair to them that they should suffer for his own selfish reasons. Ash also thought about his friends and if they should know about his issue. But the more he thought about it, the more Ash rationalized that telling them wouldn't be a good idea, the thought of the problem had already caused him enough grief, just the thought of Misty in Tracey's arms caused a wave of anger and sadness to overcome him.

Ash figured if he talked about it, his friends would just tell him, 'Oh well too bad, get over her. Find someone else.'

"Pah, as if I could if I wanted to!" Ash hissed under his breath. But try as he might, he couldn't see anything he could do to better his situation, Misty loved Tracey, Misty didn't love him, and from the way she spoke about their relationship, it didn't sound like one that could be broken apart. "Blast it...guess…I guess I _will_ just have to forget about her."

Soon enough Ash finished blowing off steam and returned to camp. He was nervous about it as he had been pretty mad at May and Brock, he hoped he wouldn't have to explain himself.

Upon arriving back, Ash saw May seemed to be camping for him. She stood up and walked over to him instantly. Ash looked shamefully away, but what May said surprised him. "Ash, are you feeling better now?"

Ash blinked at the question. "Listen, May, I'm sorr…"

"Ash," May interrupted, "are you feeling better now?"

Ash stared. "Um…yes. Yeah… I'm…I'm feeling a bit better."

"Good," May smiled, and began to walk away.

"Wait, May!" Ash yelled. Luckily this caught her attention and she faced him. "I'm sorry for snapping at you."

"That's all right," May answered. Ash blinked and was about to retort but May silenced him with a raise of her hand. "I mean it Ash, it's okay, you don't have to say anything – you just needed to blow off some steam anyways. Besides," she went on cheekily, "this is the first time I've seen you so hung up on something besides Pokémon."

Ash stared before realizing what May meant by that. "Hey! I resent that!"

May said nothing but smirked before continuing, "Anyways, I'm sorry, I'm the one who began to interrogate you on the spot, right? It's not me you should apologize to, I mean, I fight with Max all the time so I'm used to it – really it's Corphish who you apologize to." And with that, May offered a genuine smile and walked away.

After that Ash went to apologize to Corphish for the rough training session; luckily, the Ruffian Pokémon took it in its stride and waved it off. But Ash was more put off by the behavior of his friends, as all evening May never brought up what had started the argument, and Brock and Max remained stone cold silent as well. Instead they acted as if it didn't happen, or brushed it off as no big deal and were casual about it. By the end of the day, Ash decided that if they were willing to let the matter slide, then he would as well.

In a way Ash welcomed that silence, it meant that during the day he could focus on Pokémon and his training. But the problems soon began every night when he couldn't sleep, in his tired state of mind somehow his thoughts became those about Misty, he would look hazily around and see her, only for him to blink and suddenly she wasn't there.

Ash honestly could say he tried to focus his attention on his Pokémon and having fun, it worked during the day but at night she haunted him, and it was even worse whenever they passed by places he remembered from his days of travelling with Misty, or if they ran into an old acquaintance of theirs, it made the dreams worst. He could open a book and suddenly before him was her image and name, only to fade away from his sight just as fast. The worse was, every time he thought of her, that ocean from that night would come back, raging a storm, and even though there was a great distance between the two of them, her face was always clear as crystal to him, Ash would cry out in vain to Misty across that ocean, only for her to turn around and suddenly fade into the wind and rain. Each time that happened Ash would suddenly regain his consciousness and snap back to the real world. It pained him, but somehow he always managed to keep a straight face.

Brock, Max and May all seemed oblivious to the problem, they thought that when Ash's sudden fits and rages had stopped that whatever previous issue that had been troubling him had been resolved, but it wasn't the case. Ash still had his demons; he just managed to keep it well hidden from them. _It's better this way…_ he would rationalize to himself.

But with every day that passed with his secret kept safe amounted itself to another day where his mental state would decay even further...

 **O** o **O** o **O**

"Now Sceptile, use Bullet Seed!" Ash called out. _Damn it, surely now you've gotten over it?_

"Scept… tile?" Sceptile sighed in defeat, once again unable to perform an attack

The others sighed. "Poor Sceptile must still be feeling the pain of a broken heart," May murmured. Ash snarled at May's words, as if Sceptile had any right to be so bummed out over a Meganium that they had all known just for one day.

Ash angrily strolled up to Sceptile. "Hey, come on, you can do those moves! You have to try harder. Get that stuff out of your mind and do it!" he snapped. All the while his thoughts drifted somewhere else… _As if you_ ever _know true heartbreak, try knowing you like your best friend for years only for her to…_

"You're just making it worse, you know," a suave voice coolly interrupted, as stepping into the groups view was Drew Hayden. "You're not thinking about it from Sceptile's point of view."

Drew then walked to the front of Sceptile to comfort the grass-type. "Telling your Pokémon to try harder only gives them more stress – and you don't need that, right?" Drew went on.

 _Screw you! I_ know _enough to tell you it's stupid to think that way_ , Ash angrily thought as his eye twitched, Pikachu murmured uncomfortably from where he was on Ash's shoulder. _I know what's best for_ my _Pokémon_ _and I know_ they _don't need to be bogged down by stupid love issues!_

Ash was ready to snap at the younger male for his interference but then May started up a conversation with the coordinator, something to do with a note May had found in her room with no sender labelled last night. Drew, as per his usual self casually, but confidently, told May that doing that wasn't his style. Ash and others quickly called his bluff, and Pikachu laughed heartily as Drew blushed under everyone's gazes of mocked wonder.

 _Pff, this dude is so freaking obvious, just ask May out already you grass-headed chump_ , Ash thought to himself as Drew explained his situation. The signs were easy to tell but for Drew's own sake, Ash decided _not_ to let onto May that is was obvious Drew's roses and snide remarks were all just a variation of flirting.

As the day went on Ash and the others watched as some girl named Brianna stepped into the fold. From what Ash and the others could gather Brianna was a new coordinator who in Ash's opinion clearly saw May as a love rival for Drew's affection, and Ash just couldn't help but inwardly feel put out as May paid casual attention to the matter. Not that the teen drama mattered to her, as May had a perfect scapegoat in obtaining her Contest ribbon.

During the contest Drew's words played on Ash's mind, each time he thought of them, he would just scoffed inwardly to. As far as Ash was concerned, Drew knew _nothing_ about real broken hearts; he was just trying to save face in front of May...

 _Lucky May_ , Ash thought to himself, feeling slightly jealous.

 **O** o **O** o **O**

Months went by and it was near the end of summer, but the changing seasons weren't on Ash's mind. Recently he had just defeated Salon Maiden Anabel – a girl who he soon picked up had a crush on him. Ash had played it cool and acted indifferent and was relieved that Anabel didn't try to use her psychic abilities on him to try and read his feelings, otherwise it would've revealed every dark and upset thought that he had stowed into the back of his conscious. All the same in spite of the awkward situation he had prevailed and earned his Ability symbol – this left him with only the Brave symbol left to obtain.

The Battle Pyramid was near Pewter City, but May had been insistent after the Mulberry Contest that she wanted to take her Eevee and Squirtle to the coast, and that meant having to go to Cerulean City…

She said they'd only be there for a day but the moment she revealed where she wanted to go Ash's anxiety levels went up. He had a fight with May over why, but in the end gave up trying as May refused to budge.

Brock saw the opportunity as a great way to stock up on supplies, and Max wanted to see all of the water-type Pokémon. They all took care not to mention Misty, they didn't know why, but they had the feeling something would go terribly wrong if they did. Ash at first wanted to just wait around for them at Sable City, but the risk of separating was too big so Ash begrudgingly agreed to go.

When they got there, the group split up. "Right," Brock began, "I'll go check on some breeder material, pokechow and that sort of thing. Max, you're coming along with me, right?" The black haired kid nodded, he then casted a wary glance at Ash. "Good, how about you Ash, want to come along?"

"No thanks," Ash quickly said. "I'll – uh – wait for you guys outside the city."

Brock and Max looked at each other in concern but weren't sure what to say. "Okay then," Brock began, "just be safe out there. We'll see you later."

"Right," Ash replied, nodding as he went to go. "Let's go Pikachu, let's get the heck out of here."

Ash wouldn't say that he knew Cerulean like the back of his hand, but he had seen enough of the place to know the farthest path he could take that strayed far away from where the Cerulean gym, it went along a street covered with houses and apartment buildings. Ash would occasionally glance around, it may be a city, but it wasn't safe to assume that somehow you couldn't run into old unwelcomed familiar faces. He was two miles away from the gym, it was safe enough he kept telling himself.

"Pikapi, chupi, pika pik Pikachu pikachupi!" Pikachu scolded at him.

"Be quiet," Ash hissed. "It's none of _my_ concern, not as if what _I_ think matters anyways. I just want to get out of here and everything will be okay." Turning a street corner, the map had told him this would be the last stretch before the city limit came within view, he was so close…

But as he turned towards a narrow street, Ash's heart skipped a beat and his stomach pinched – Pikachu stared alongside him, both of them were stunned speechless. Ash tried to move away, but it was as if cement was holding him in place.

There in front of him was Misty out in the street, with Tracey, holding hands, and they were in the middle of a kiss. Her hair was down, and Ash noticed immediately that it went a little ways past her pale shoulders…why was he thinking like that? He cringed on hearing her moan from the kiss. It sent shivers down his spine and kept him glued to the spot, yet at the same time gave him the urge to run up and punch Tracey. He didn't know what to do and so he stood there, unable to move.

Misty sighed as Tracey moved off of her. "I love you, Tracey."

Something in Ash churned seeing her look at Tracey the way she did, and cringed when he saw Tracey smile back at her. "Love you too Mist. Are you ready to go to lunch now?" Tracey asked her.

"Very," she happily responded. But when she turned to walk ahead, she had to stop as her eyes fell to the last person she was expecting to see. "Ash? What are you doing here?"

Ash couldn't say anything. Seeing her move to face him made him more paralyzed than he was before, his eyes met her shimmering cerulean ones, and his gaze couldn't help but notice the pale blue dress she was wearing, and the way her hair flowed looked simply awing to him. She looked so stunning…

"Ash, are you even listening to me? I asked 'What are you doing here?'!" Misty yelled. Her voice snapped him out of his reverie and his gaze fell on her as she looked at him with an indescribable look.

"I – um – er – I well…" Ash stammered, her beauty alone confused him making him unable to concentrate. He quickly averted his gaze to the cement. "I w-was j-j…just passing through."

"Just passing?" she repeated, as if skeptical of his reasoning.

"Yeah…um…" Ash could only trail off, his mind was racing and he couldn't get it under control. "I'm clearly interrupting something," he quickly turned around on his heel before continuing, "and I need to be somewhere so I'll just be going and–"

"Hold it right there Ketchum," Misty burst out suddenly, catching Ash off guard. "In the first place what are you thinking coming here to Cerulean City without telling me figuring that somehow I wouldn't bump into you? Secondly, I'm not that busy nor in the middle of something, I think you're…"

Ash suddenly turned around on her. "I think the better question, Waterflower, is 'Why are you sneaking around so far away from your gym?'!" he snapped as he pointed in the direction of the Dewgong labelled dome indicating the cities gym location in comparison to theirs.

Misty glared at him. "What does it look like I'm doing Ash?"

"G-g-going…on…a d-d-da…" he knew what was going on, but Ash couldn't find the courage to say it.

"Yes Ash, a date."

"Oh um…"

"Misty," Tracey muttered impatiently whilst looking very uncomfortable, "it's almost time for our reservation…"

"Oh right!" Misty said, with more cheeriness than what she gave Ash. "Yes of course sweetie, it'll be fun!" Ash felt a surge of animosity well within him and he stared hard at Misty in a way that conveyed just how he felt about the situation, he was so upset, why Tracey, why not him. The very fact he just heard her call the Watcher 'sweetie' made his blood boil. Misty noticed this and stared back. "What's wrong with you?"

Ash's lips formed a tight frown and he looked away. "Nothing – it's nothing at all."

"Tracey," Misty asked politely, "could please wait for me by the corner? Ash and I have something we need to talk about."

"Uh okay, sure," Tracey responded and walked away. Misty smiled in his direction till he disappeared behind the corner, and then swung round to face Ash.

"What on earth is up with you?"

"What are you talking about? No clue what you're going off about, I'm fine."

"Ash," Misty said impatiently, "I can tell when something is bothering you, now spill it!"

 _Yeah, there's a ton of things I want to say to you right now_ , Ash thought to himself, but he wasn't sure if he could say what he wanted to say. To admit his thoughts had been that he was jealous, that she shouldn't date Tracey, and that he loved her more than anything. But could he do that, admit it all when she looked so happy? Ash took a moment to meet her eyes – and in that instant he knew his choice. "I just…what about me Mist?" he finally said. Misty was confused.

"Huh?"

"Considering that well…" he began as he buried his hands deep into his pockets, kicking the cement as he did so, "you're dating Tracey! It…it's as if you don't have time to be my friend anymore!" _Even though I wish you'd be more…_

"Oh…" Misty murmured. "Well it's…kind of hard to be friends with a boy when you're dating, y'know."

"I…I…I don't…"

"Ash," Misty began, the softness of her voice tugged on his heart strings, Ash regretted his decision. "I know this sounds hard, but being together with Tracey…it's been the best times of my life these past few months. We've become more comfortable with our relationship these past few weeks, and it's wonderful, and I've been feeling that all because…" she trailed off, as if not sure what to say.

Ash was confused why Misty stopped. But when he saw her eyes he suddenly felt that same ocean from before coming in between them, he shivered, in truth it was actually just a small breeze, but to Ash it felt like a gale…

"B-b-cause…?" Ash barely got out. He spoke as if Misty couldn't hear him, but she heard him loud and clear. Her voice came to him like a lighthouse's foghorn.

"Because I've moved on from you," she said.

Ash stared, "W-wait, what's that supposed to mean?" _No…no…t-that's not – you aren't saying that you…_

"I'm saying it now, because I need to – Ash Ketchum, I _use_ to be in love you!"

Ash had no words to say, he felt all the air in him leave his body and he felt light headed, he leaned back against the wall behind him in shock. Pikachu was instantly shocked and wanted to yell something on behalf of Ash, but could only squeak out, "Pikachupi…"

Misty misinterpreted Ash's action. "I know it sounds absurd, doesn't it?" she began, not paying attention to the boy's expression. "I don't know when, or how, but somehow…I fell for you. In the end, I guess it didn't matter how I felt back then."

Ash wanted to respond, but couldn't, his throat was dry.

"You saw me as just a friend," Misty continued, "and well, I suppose you'd want to know why I didn't say anything back then? I didn't want to risk our friendship, I liked having you as a friend so much – that and you never really showed that much interest in me, can't blame you, you never saw me as pretty, most of the time you thought I wasn't even close. That and the bond we had as just friends was too good to just break over my little crush – and then well…we separated, you didn't even call me any time afterwards, at all. I'll admit, I missed you a lot during those times. During that time I soon began to see Tracey around a lot more often and well I fell for him, with Tracey for the first time in my life someone I liked began having feelings for me, feelings that I could reciprocate without regret, he helped me out so much…I don't know what I'd have done back then without him.

"Lucky you, right?" she continued, as Ash stared helplessly. Misty mistook it as Ash not understanding. "So now you don't ever have to worry about breaking my heart if you didn't feel the same. Honestly I was hoping that I could tell you how I felt, I kept thinking that you would reciprocate, but in the end those were just fevered dreams. But now that I've been able to look past my old feelings for you, I've enjoyed a loving new relationship, now I can't help but feel that it was silly of me back then to think that we could ever work as lovers, because what me and Tracey have now is so perfect. I mean you and me? That would be silly, right? 'No sense in going out of your way to get the attention of someone you like' or whatever it was you said."

"Mist…" Ash barely choked out from the dryness, once again his own words were being used against him, and he felt like his chest was freezing over. But Misty didn't hear a word.

"As I said, I've come to terms with my old feelings. Sorry I had to tell you like this, you probably have a bunch of things on your mind, and finding out your best friend had a crush on you isn't what you had in mind on finding out today, but now you know…but don't worry! Don't feel guilty over not feeling anything for me." Ash felt as though ice was falling on him again, nothing she was saying about him was true! "Moving on from you and looking forward to my future, it was for the best. You and I as a couple just wouldn't have worked out."

But to Ash that wasn't true at all, nor did he agree that 'it was for the best', he tried to say something in objection but the words couldn't come out as his body felt colder and colder as he fidgeted uncomfortably. He felt dizzy and was trying his best not to cry, to scream, to do anything – all of these revelations were making him dizzy and his body weak.

Ash raised his head, hoping the dizziness would stop, but instead met Misty's eyes, her cerulean orbs made him lose his breath, he now felt that he had to say something…

But just as their eyes did fully meet, Misty broke away to check her watch and suddenly became excited. "Oh! What a way to lose the time! Only five minutes till our reservation time, gotta go! Bye! See you round." And before Ash could say anything, Misty ran off. He watched her go, distress written all over his face as he was left to reflect on the conversation that happened, and just how…happy she was, with another boy, and he wasn't him.

He had seen her happy before, but this was different, she was happy with a boyfriend, a boyfriend who wasn't him, and would never be him, the smiles she had made coincided with everything she said last time. Tracey was the one, and now, it seemed like he was the one she would want to marry. The thought made Ash feel weak, inadequate… Misty was happy, smiling and laughing…and it was all because he – once the crush-Ash-Ketchum – was out of picture…

The moisture fully returned to his throat and Ash began to cry, he gave up holding himself up and gravity forced his legs to buckle and his backpack ground against the wall. He hit the cold pavement with a thud which he failed to feel the pain from, the pain in his heart was already excruciating enough.

Pikachu was frantic. "Pikapi! Kachu pika pi pika chu!" _Ash! Don't let it get to you!_

But Pikachu's encouragement didn't help, Ash was hugging himself by the knees and his crying intense, he was so overcome with grief. "I'm…I'm so…s-stupid…" he sobbed. "She…she…like…I…" he didn't get further and continued to grieve, the cold waves of his imaginary ocean enveloping him, making him feel colder and colder.

Pikachu could only watch on helplessly before deciding the best course of action for Ash was to get Brock as soon as possible. He ran off quickly to go search for him.

At first Brock and Max were incredibly confused when they were walking out of the Poké Mart and saw Pikachu running up frantically towards them, but when they saw how worried the Mouse Pokémon was they became concerned that it might concern Ash and so they quickly followed Pikachu.

When they got to Ash both were shocked to see Ash sitting on the pavement leaning against a properties wall, his cheeks stained with tears. He was still sobbing.

"Ash!" Brock yelled as he came up, he put a hand on the raven haired boy's back. "Ash, what's wrong? Did something happen?" Ash didn't respond, he just opened his eyes, revealing red eyes and a very melancholic look, after looking Brock in the eyes, Ash just went pack to staring at the pavement. Bonsly, who was outside of his Pokéball and in Brock's arms began to bawl his eyes out at the sight of Ash's depressed state. Brock tried to get Ash to talk, but Ash remained stone faced.

With the help of Max, Brock lifted Ash up to his feet, without another word or acknowledgement Ash began to slowly walk forward. "Ash?" Brock and Max both began gently. "What happened?"

Ash stopped, and turned towards them, he was debating on whether or not to say anything about what really happened. Max was a tease and Misty's false belief in that Ash couldn't change was rooted thanks to Max's timing, and Brock was a relentless flirt who had yet to win a heart. There was no way he'd say anything.

"I saw something unfold that was beyond anything I ever wanted to witness," Ash ominously replied, "it caused me pain here, that's all," he went on as he motioned to his heart. Brock and Max were confused by the cryptic message and tried to get Ash to talk about it, but he only kept brushing their concerns off saying he didn't wish to discuss what he saw, citing it was personal and kept on walking towards the city limit. There he simply sat down on the grass outside and brooded until May caught up.

 **O** o **O** o **O**

May had no luck either trying to get Ash to talk. In the end all three gave up trying to get him to say anything, they figured that whatever personal problem it was affecting him that it was something only he could deal with. But whilst they all carried on like normal, Ash's mood declined, he felt upset that he had allowed his vanity to make him believe that she would wait for him. Jealousy also wasn't out of the question, it was clear Misty was making strides to further her relationship with Tracey, and he had completely terminated theirs…even if he hadn't meant to. It was a real conundrum and it caused him to reflect on his relationships and thought a great deal about how his current three friends handled their relationships.

May and Max often made calls to check in with their parents, and even Brock kept loose contact with his folks via email. But Ash didn't even bother so much as to call his Mom every now and then, and worse still, he hadn't even called Misty as much as he should've. Misty and him, they were friends, but Ash began to feel like they weren't even Best Friends anymore. "What kind of 'best friend' doesn't even call or check in?" he would say to himself in his alone time. "She's so happy, but here I am feeling jealous all because I couldn't bother to pick up the phone every once in a while…what kind of friend does that make me?"

He felt so guilty, Misty was happy with Tracey that much was clear to see. In turn he should've been happy for them. Two of his good friends together in a relationship, that should be something to feel good about, but to him it wasn't, and he felt terrible for feeling that way.

Ash sighed, his thoughts kept going back on everything she had said from the first day he got back to Kanto to the last time he saw Misty and he couldn't help but wonder what she was thinking in regards to him to make her change her view of him so much. He couldn't get her out of his mind, about how she had evolved since leaving him, her Gyarados and boyfriend all serving as symbols of that change, and he didn't even have a clue about any of it.

Ash could only blame himself, and not just for failing her, but it was becoming obvious that Misty was affecting him so much he began to fail even his own Pokémon.

Pyramid King Brandon hadn't gotten his title for nothing; the fact that the man had not only a Regirock, but a Registeel in his party of Pokémon was solid proof that he had earned his title as Battle Frontier King. Normally Ash felt he could focus solely on winning his battles, especially against strong opponents. But even as he fought hard against Brandon's Registeel with his Torkoal, for all Scott's talk about how he looked so calm in battle, inwardly Ash still felt numb, numbed at the thought that whilst he was there battling for a prestigious title, elsewhere was Misty leading her life, having fun…fun with Tracey.

Ash had been so focused on himself and what he was doing along with his friends, the thought of what other people were doing at the same time never crossed his mind, and it caused him to miss out on so much of their lives. He couldn't explain why he felt the way he did, but something about just thinking about his ignorance made him feel weak, pathetic and undeserving of any friendship that he called strong. Especially, he felt, if he had done that to Misty, and he had done exactly that.

When Torkoal was pronounced unable to battle, Ash felt ashamed, not only had he just lost, but he has lost on account of Misty plaguing his mind. It felt awful, he wondered why couldn't just forget about her, but he couldn't.

Professor Oak came to see him not long after the battle with gifts. He presented Ash with a special art piece made by his Pokémon along with a 'FIGHT' logo…by Tracey. Ash couldn't help but feel a pang of guilt course through him when he resented hearing Tracey's name, it wasn't Sketchit's fault, but deep down he still felt livid that it was Tracey who asked Misty out first and not him. His other present was special bento box made for him by his Mom.

"…And," Professor Oak went on after revealing the bento, "here's a present from Misty." Ash felt his heart skip a beat the moment the Professor said 'Misty', and stared as Professor Oak revealed a lure in her image that he knew she made herself. He took it into his hand and stared longingly at it, her special lure, the one she crafted herself that she had never wanted to share at first. He touched the lure's shape in a sort of daze as he was entranced by its portrayal of her in her old travelling clothes and her countenance winking at him filled him with a strange happiness – it awed him that she would even consider gifting him it.

Pikachu certainly was pleased to see it, squealing excitedly, "Pikachupi!" upon glancing at it. Ash however continued to stare.

Brock smiled upon recognizing the object. "That's the Misty special."

"It sure looks interesting," May said.

"Like it'll catch anything," Max chipped in.

However Ash didn't hear a word they said, he tightened his hold on the object, and blinked away the small tears that were threatening to come out. It was Professor Oak who broke him out of his trance but Ash was barely paying attention, he heard something about fishing but Ash was hardly interested in doing any of that. The Professor also brought attention to what Gary was up to, something about him being based in some region called Sinnoh, but Ash wasn't paying all that attention, but he did have to admit, the postcard did at least look nice. But pine trees and a lake wasn't anything when compared to the one whose image was encompassed by that lure. Even as the Professor and his friends discussed the revelations of what his old rival was up to, Ash couldn't be bothered by it.

He thought instead of her, he quietly slipped a few feet away from their sights – except for Pikachu who watched him the whole while – to handle the lure, something about doing that brought him comfort. Yet it also saddened him, they never hugged once when they travelled together, the closest was hand holding or shaking, or if he dared to remember – her sleeping on top of him or next to him whenever that Jigglypuff stirred up trouble. Touching her image only reminded him of how far apart they really were, under most circumstances this might've made him realize an ugly truth, but it only worked in making his need for her stronger – perhaps this gift to him was sign, or just a symbol of their friendship. Ash couldn't pin it, but something about this lure made him conflicted, yet affirmed something, he sighed and gave it a quick squeeze from within his pockets, and quickly removed his hand to rejoin his friends.

Pikachu gave him look, "Pikapi, Pikachu pika pi chu chu pi? Pikachupi…chu pika pika chu pikachue pika…pik, Pikachu pika chu chupi, chu pika cha?" _Ash, just how can you keep going on like this? Misty…I like her just as you do…but, she's made her choice, why fight it?_

Ash was pretty sure there were times when he understood Pikachu, but sometimes he had a feeling that often it wasn't just a hunch of what his partner was saying, but a strange psychological connection that made it out as if he did fully understand everything Pikachu was saying, but just didn't know he did.

"Buddy," he began quietly. "I don't how, I don't know when, but I know, I can't give up." But even if his words were strong, Ash and Pikachu somehow both felt deep down…that maybe Ash was just merely grasping at straws…Ash tried to bury the thought, but for the rest of the day it gnawed at him, Pikachu stay wisely and respectfully silent.


	4. Is This Love, Or Obsession?

_**Is This Love, Or Obsession?**_

Ash was incredibly proud that say that he had been able to defeat Pyramid King Brandon, taking on the strongest Battle Frontier Brain in a tough four-on-four battle. The battle however hadn't been easy. Charizard went down in the first round to Brandon's Dusclops. Squirtle had managed to defeat Brandon's Ninjask, but then Brandon's Solrock defeated Squirtle – the fact that Ash had to accept his water-type – who had previously been able to defeat both an electric-type and a powerful fire-type all in a row – lost to a rock-type was incredibly embarrassing. All the same, a win was a win.

In the wake of his of it all Ash had had to say goodbye to May and Max, and then left Brock to go home. Unfortunately Ash's time spent in Pallet Town was time he spent trying to avoid Tracey, something about that teen was rubbing him the wrong way and he felt a strange tingly, unnerving feeling when around Tracey. It didn't exactly help that Gary was around as well, and as his bad luck would have it, was talking to Tracey on the subject of girlfriends, and Ash had just been in time to hear Tracey talking about him and Misty. Ash never left a room so quick for reasons not relating to Pokémon or food. Pokémon and food – a funny thing that. Ash wondered if Misty deep down only ever saw him as obsessed with those things and those things alone.

It sickened Ash to his stomach having to listen to Tracey drone on about kissing Misty, and hugging her, and napping with her. And the only reason Tracey had been talking about those things was because of Gary! To escape, Ash immediately challenged Gary to a Pokémon battle, but because Ash's emotions were all over the place – and, admittedly, the difference in strength between the two Pokémon – he and Pikachu ended up losing to Gary and his Electivire.

Ash had two options, look like he was blindly chasing Gary's coattails and go to the Sinnoh region, or rest in Pallet after journeying for so long and listen to Tracey's gossip and his mother's questions…he decided to risk looking like he was crazed dead set on beating Gary and went to the Sinnoh region. He may have been tired, but Ash knew a rest wasn't worth the heavy burden his heart already had to endure, and seeing Tracey only deepened the wound.

 **O** o **O** o **O**

Even when he was so far away she was still somehow Ash's mind. For a start Paul had a way of bringing her influence out of him, Misty had cared for Pokémon and how they were treated, and had made sure Ash back then understood that – and with having to see and hear the way Paul treated his own Pokémon Ash couldn't help but feel insulted on her behalf whenever he saw Paul judging and treating Pokémon like tools.

But even with all sorts of problems he had to face presently Ash still felt conflicted deep down, ever since Misty revealed her love for Tracey, and then her former affection for him, he began to feel like a terrible friend. Tracey had won her heart, he should've felt happy for them and conceded he lost, but Ash just couldn't accept what was happening and felt guilty for it. Ash felt he was betraying Misty, she was happy, yet there he was feeling jealous and sorry for himself. "Some friend I am," he would say to himself when no one was listening.

The trouble began however when a stranger told them about a strong Buizel in the nearby river. Upon hearing of the powerful water-type Ash instantly became excited and wanted to catch it, however he quickly began to regret that decision. First he ended up having to use _her_ lure, the mini-Misty one. Ash tried at first to find another one in his bag, but hers was all he had. He bit down and hastily decided to use it, albeit he really wished he didn't have to.

As they fished, Ash sighed. He remembered that one time he did see this exact lure reel in a Gyarados, yet somehow her lure wasn't being of any help. "Man," he groaned, "I'm not getting any bites." _So much for this catching anything…_

"I've never seen a lure like that," Dawn said, noticing for the first time the strange lure Ash was using.

Ash looked at her and then back at the rod, Dawn did seem genuinely interested in it. "Yeah, pretty cool isn't it? It was a gift from an old friend from a while ago," he replied, a frustratingly familiar ache coming over his stomach.

"Yeah, an old friend of ours," Brock added, feeling confused over Ash's cryptic way of referring to Misty, but he decided to play along. "Nowadays she's the Cerulean Gym Leader."

Ash quietly nodded and turned back to face the river, secretly glad Brock didn't blow it. His thoughts drifted back to her, he stared at his reflection, and wondered what she was doing. He'd guess she was at her Gym or by the ocean, looking out onto the waves, probably dealing with her headache of a Psyduck…how he wished he could be there with her, but no doubt, _Tracey_ would be the one she'd want to share that moment with. Ash's hands gripped his rod tight at the thought, the sketching punk! What did Tracey ever do to get such chances? It's not like he ever fished with her on multiple occasions like he did…

"Hey," Dawn suddenly called out to him, "how about giving me a chance with that lure?"

Ash whipped round and glared at Dawn who was smiling; give her a _chance_ with his lure…? "No way Dawn!" he replied. He had let her out of his sights once – he wouldn't do that again.

Dawn frowned and tried to grab Ash's rod but the raven-haired trainer didn't let in and two bickered viciously until Dawn's coordinating rival Zoey showed up and stopped their quarrel.

 **O** o **O** o **O**

Ash was sure he wouldn't have missed it as much as he should've, but it felt like a heavy burden was lifted off of his chest when he held her image in his hands again, a strange sense of happiness came over him as he saw it was still intact. Buizel had been sneaky, and after defeating Dawn's Piplup, Zoey's Glameow, and even Pikachu, the Buizel took their fishing gear and swam off. Having already given chase, the trainers were all relieved to find their rods and lures safe, among several others Buizel had claimed. But not one of them was quite as relieved as Ash was when he found the mini-Misty in one piece.

Dawn later was the one to catch Buizel, but their day wasn't quite over yet. After the exhausting battle with Buizel, Piplup had worn himself to the point of knock out and so a visit to the Pokémon Center was the order for the rest of the day. Whilst there they all decided to leave their Pokémon under Nurse Joy's care, but now they were left with nothing to do.

Dawn was growing restless – she had already flipped through every magazine in the lobby, or had simply already read them when they were at the last Pokémon Center. She was flipping unhappily through the channels on the television and was giving up.

Brock frowned as he watched her flip through page after page of channels when something grabbed his eyes. "Hey, give that back!" Dawn growled as Brock snatched the remote out of her hands.

"Sorry Dawn," Brock said absently, "but as I'm the oldest one I get to claim the remote." They both heard Ash verbally scoff at that. "Anyhow, you can't seem to find anything to watch so I'll watch what I want to watch instead."

"As long as it's entertaining…" Dawn grumbled. Brock paid no attention to her words and started looking around before finding what he wanted.

"Ah hah!" he cheered, as he quickly pressed on the 'select' button. Ash and Dawn who were on either side of the Breeder looked up to see what Brock had found. The screen flashed to some sort of water tank elevated in a huge stadium of sorts, the bottom of the tank was decorated in an assortment of rocks and underwater plants with water Pokémon swimming all about, Dawn perked up, fascinated by what was happening. Ash meanwhile felt a wash of some strange feeling as he watched what was happening, a sense of familiarity came to him but he wasn't sure. A sudden female voice then announced that what they were looking at was the recent mermaid play at the Cerulean Gym, Ash's stomach churned as his suspicions became true. But with Brock having seen him in the aftermath of what happened – both times in fact – and Dawn being as nosy as she was, Ash reluctantly stayed seated.

Ash managed to keep a poker face, but became increasingly uncomfortable as Misty came onto set. He inwardly gasped at how beautiful she had become as the cameras turned to focus on her figure on top of the diving board. The way she swam was so elegant to him, the footage shot was high quality and Ash felt disturbed at how many of her features he could make out, and it only fueled the ache he felt for her. She had grown so much, and was positively stunning to him as he noticed her slightly bigger chest area, wider hips, and her hair…oh how he was sure that was natural unlike the first time. All other sounds in the Center's lobby were soon tuned out to him, he could only focus on her, and whenever she wasn't in view he would wait patiently to see her again. He was so focused in fact that he never heard anything that Dawn was saying, or Brock's comments whenever he saw one of Misty's sisters on set, or the pinging from the Center's station indicating that their Pokémon had finished recovering.

Ash was so focused on how beautiful Misty had become, that he barely noticed when Pikachu went running into his lap. It was only when the play ended not long after when Ash realized his Mouse Pokémon was right beside him. Whilst Dawn talked eagerly about the costumes and the story and Brock about how well looked after the Pokémon were as well as the health of Misty, Ash's find was filled with thoughts of her.

It was then that _her_ voice was suddenly heard. Ash whipped around to see a reporter with Misty, having pulled the girl aside for an interview, but when in the midst of it, Misty suddenly addressed and accredited something to her boyfriend Tracey, the moment Ash saw her take Tracey's hand to hold, his fists balled up and he quickly, and discreetly, made haste to pick up the rest of his Pokémon.

Ash didn't quite know where he was, all round him was a sort of mist. He looked at himself and found he was wearing his current travelling clothes. _What is this place…?_ He thought. It took Ash a second to also realize he had no backpack or Pokémon with him. Feeling nervous in his new environment Ash cautiously walked around as the fog floated. "Pikachu? Dawn? Brock?" Ash called out. He heard nothing in response, only silence.

The hairs on the back of his neck stood up, no one was around, and the place was cold and lonely. He wandered the strange utopia for a bit longer, not even paying attention to his direction but soon he came to a spot where the fog was particularly thick, it was there where he saw it. Ash felt his heart skip a beat as he saw her, Misty. He could recognize those orange locks anywhere, even from the back. Ash also saw some things he blushed at, and quietly thanked whatever force was causing the fog to cover her. He couldn't help but notice her widened figure, especially her hips, wide but not too wide…she looked so womanly…puberty had been kind to her, he thought.

"Misty," Ash began, trying to walk up to her, but realized that every step he took, she seemed to keep the same distance between them, yet his footsteps were the only ones he could hear. "Mist…?"

Suddenly she turned around, or rather, her ghostly figure did. "Well, well, well," she said, eyes lowering into a frown as she looked at him. Ash felt instantly uneasy, his feet felt frozen to the ground from her icy tone. "Finally decided to come back into my life, Ash Ketchum," Misty went on. "Always on the move, never staying in one spot…you never really cared for me, did you?" he image went on. "Not one call…not an email, no nothing for me," she continued sadly, Ash felt guilty as a strange melancholy gripped his heart.

He tried to say something, but Misty's image beat him to it. "But you're nothing to me now. You never really cared; you think I'm some damsel in distress waiting for her man to come alone. You never truly appreciated me, did you?" she asked in a taunting manner, Ash opened his mouth respond but Misty went on. "Of course not, not when you almost seem to forget I exist… but, I've found someone better…"

And before Ash knew it, from behind Misty – or well, that is to say what looked like her – came Tracey, Ash felt anger seep into his veins as Tracey's shape wrapped his arms around Misty and rested where Ash presumed Misty's chest was. "Uh-uh," Misty taunted towards him, as her head leaned back and moaned towards Tracey, "you know you don't deserve me. You're pathetic, I'm with a real man…" Ash watched, horrified as Misty moved her head towards Tracey, suddenly their appearance became less cloud-like and more real, like they were actually in front of him. Their lips touched, and he cringed hearing her louder than normal, echoing moan, "Tracey sweetie…"

"NO…!" Ash yelled.

Suddenly he felt himself hit the floor. Ash opened his eyes and looked around frantically – he was covered in sweat, but was relieved to find that he was still in the room Brock had reserved for them at the Pokémon Center. Ash looked nervously around, Dawn who was on the bottom bunker next to him was still fast asleep, and Brock on the top bunker above her was also still out. Ash breathed a sigh of relief. "It was just a bloody dream…" he muttered. But to his own surprise, he felt tears coming out. In truth, he suspected what he dreamt wasn't far from the truth…he closed his eyes, and felt more coming out.

Near where he fell, a Pokémon stirred. "Twig…?" Turtwig stood up from where it was slumbering, and its movement woke up the others. They all wandered over to their trainer, concerned at seeing him looking so sad.

"H-hey," Ash muttered, as his Pokémon clambered all around him. Pikachu looked at Ash, raising an eyebrow.

"Pikapi…pik chupi achu Pikachu pika Pikachupi…?" _Ash…are you still thinking about Misty…?_

Aipom looked over, she had heard that name before, but Staravia and Turtwig just looked confused. Pikachu said he'd tell them all later. They watched as Ash finished crying his eyes out, and went back to bed.

As his Pokémon got settled again, Ash turned sadly over to face the wall. "Why do I feel this way for her…?" he muttered quietly.

Sleep didn't come after that, he was too scared of having that dream again. By the time it was six o'clock he was exhausted and foul tempered.

No one else in the room except him stirred, his thoughts still were on her. How he allowed her to invade his mind so much he'd never know.

Ash blamed her lure, but only admitted that to himself. He tried to get rid of it to see if that would help. But try as he might, Ash couldn't bring himself to either chuck the lure or leave it behind. Instead he stuffed it into the bottom of his backpack, in hope that it would never surface again.

For the rest of the journey he tried to forget about her, but that was easier said than done. During the day Dawn just reminded him too much of her alongside her water starter. Sure, Dawn and Misty were at best opposites – but something about her just screamed Misty clone.

But it was at night where all of his suppressed feelings came out. The dreams became few and far between, but when they did come, they were total nightmares that kept him up till all hours. Only Pikachu and his other Pokémon knew of his terrors, Brock and Dawn were blissfully in the dark about it…Ash preferred it that way.

In a strange turn of events he also tended to keep his distance from Dawn, as Ash felt she would try to get too close if he allowed her near. But the blunette wouldn't stand for it.

Her idea to break Ash out his mysterious funk happened one day – it was completely casually what she came up with, a spur of the moment kind of idea that came to her. Ash had been passing by her one day after a training session, when Dawn had the bright idea to suddenly raise her hand in an attempt for a handshake.

Ash stared at her and raised his eyebrow questioningly and glanced from her hand to her face.

"What?" Dawn asked innocently. "Can't I high five a best friend?"

She had no idea how much weight her words had. Ash felt something shoot through him, and sent shivers through his spine. He felt like breaking down, for months he felt like anything but a best friend. But as he looked at Dawn's face, he saw an innocent child who just wanted to have friend, someone she could rely on for support. He had failed himself to be Misty's friend, and felt terrible for shutting the others out for his own insecurities. The least he could be is try to be a friend again.

"Yeah, we're friends and you should be able to do that," Ash quietly. Dawn just beamed, and raised her hand just a little bit higher and Ash high fived her back.

They remained good friends throughout the rest of the journey. But they never were close-close. Dawn kept her share of secrets, and Ash kept his. She felt like a little sister to him, and he soon began to feel glad for Dawn's and Brock's friendship. Brock was kind enough to let Ash deal with his demons, as was Dawn. It gave him a little boost of confidence, but it wasn't enough to forget about Misty.

 **O** o **O** o **O**

Ash sighed as he climbed the hill towards Pallet Town. He had come into fourth place at the Sinnoh League having been beaten by the winner, Tobias in the final four. Like with Brandon before Ash felt a sense of pride as a trainer, he might not have won against Tobias, but even the league's runner-up hadn't been able to defeat Tobias' Darkrai like Ash had.

Ash looked up and saw he was at the top of the hill and looked down on his home town and cringed. He was both glad to be home, but also dreaded it, no doubt he'd run into Tracey and have to hear all about his and Misty's relationship – just thinking about Tracey talking about how he had such a beauty like Misty's as his made knots in Ash's stomach, he grimaced. He had been dreading that the whole journey back, and now it was about to become reality.

"Hey, Mom!" he called as he came through the front door.

"Oh! Welcome home, sweetie!" Delia called from the kitchen. As Ash took off his shoes and put his slippers, Delia came towards him still adorning her apron.

"Oh it's so good to see you," Delia exclaimed, just then Pikachu hopped off of Ash's shoulder and went to the floor. "Oh! And it's especially good to see, Pikachu."

"Mom…" Ash whined.

Delia giggled, and finished petting Pikachu's chin before standing up to address her son. "You're just in time for lunch, dear. I have curry on the stove if that's okay with you."

"Aww Mom, you know curry's just fine!"

Delia just laughed heartily at her son's enthusiasm and quickly went back to tend to her culinary.

The lunch was quiet and delicious affair. Ash rubbed his stomach, satisfied by his full belly. His mom's voice caught his attention.

"Ash dear," Delia began after she finished busing all of the dishes away, "your timing in coming back home is just so perfect, something big is happening and the next few days are going to be chaotic I reckon. Although I reckon you already knew that."

"Something big is happening?" Ash asked confused at what his mother was implying. His birthday wasn't for another few weeks, and he didn't know of any upcoming holidays. "Um…so what's happening?"

Delia blinked. "Dear it's almost Misty's birthday, you know, May 2nd?"

Ash gaped. "M-M-Misty's…birthday?"

"That's what I said."

Ash averted his stare to the table; his features made look like a Stantler caught in the headlights. Delia became concerned. "Dear, are you okay? You don't have to get her anything–"

"I can't go!" Ash suddenly exclaimed. Delia felt rather taken aback.

"But dear, it's her fifteenth birthday. Surely you'd want to celebrate best friend's birthday?"

"I can't, I won't," Ash said, his breathing became unsteady and all color was drained from his face.

"But honey, why…? Did something happen between you two to cause this?" Delia asked as she walked over and put a hand on her son's shoulder. She noticed that Pikachu seemed uncomfortable as well, and noticed the way the Mouse Pokémon was looking at her like she said the worse thing possible. "Tell me what happened," she said gently.

Ash closed his eyes, and told her everything. From the time he realized he liked Misty, learning that she was dating Tracey, having to find out she use to like him, to the nightmares that haunted him at night.

"…I just…I…I love her, Mom," Ash ended weakly as tears stained his face and his chest ached. "I can't go to her party, I know Tracey will be there, I just…it'll hurt too much just to be there…"

"Honey," Delia began gently, "I'm sorry to hear you've been dealing with that, but…" she trailed off, not sure how to continue.

Ash looked at her sadly before glancing away. "I'm probably being stupid, right?"

"What makes you say that?"

"I'm stressing over someone who's in a relationship! Why in hell can't I just forget about it and be happy for her?! Why me…?"

"You do love her for who she is, right?" Delia asked gently, Ash nodded. "Then…what you feel sweetie, is genuine, that's nothing to be ashamed about, we all have someone who we want to be with and that's just human nature. But not every love story ends well. We all fall in love, yes, but not every person we fall for will love us in the end. They have feelings for others too, and we have to respect what they want, we can't make people fall for us, or yield to our wants and needs. That's not how the world works, it's not ever just you – it's them."

Ash closed his eyes, in thought. "Is that why you let dad go?" he asked quietly. Delia gave a sad, distant smile.

"Yes honey, we all fall for someone. But if you truly love them, you have to allow them to do what they want to do, regardless about how you feel. Because you love them for who they are, not because they do what you want them to do. The ones we love the most, are the ones we often let go off if that's what they want." She left it at that, she could see that she had left her boy with a lot to think about, or perhaps just confirmed something to him.

"But…" he said in a voice just barely above a whisper, "…what about how I feel…?"

Delia bit her bottom lip and looked away uncomfortably. She knew what she was about to say was going to hurt, but Ash had to hear it. "When it comes to love, you can't always win. You can't make someone feel something for someone they've moved on from, and in some cases, those feelings might never return, and that's how it'll always be." Without another, Delia exited the room, she heard Ash give a stifled sob, but she didn't look back, she gave him the truth – and truth was hard.

Ash didn't say anything for the rest of the day. He was in a state for some time after the talk, he became sluggish and slow. Delia had hoped Ash that in time Ash would come to terms with the facts, after all there wouldn't be much he could do, Misty had spoken for herself, and from what she saw and heard, it seemed Misty was inseparable from Tracey. It wasn't to say she was disappointed Misty wasn't dating Ash, she had come to view Misty as the daughter she never had, and like any mother she was happy that Misty had found someone she liked so much, and one that Delia did like.

But somewhere in her Delia did feel a tinge of sadness for what could've been. Ash looked and sounded so miserable, but she knew he wasn't going to be like that forever. He should be able to move on, but Delia felt that the possibility wasn't there for Ash, something seemed off. She had the inkling that Ash's feelings were beyond what he thought.

Ash for the most part never seemed to want to go anywhere; all Ash done was drop off his newly caught Pokémon at Professor Oak's lab – although on a few occasions Delia would ask her son to go fetch his Torterra back, she like having the big Pokémon around to for shade whilst she tended to her garden – and was for the most part home, locked in his room like he wanted nothing to do with the outside world. Delia was worried, but wasn't sure what to do, Ash had never dealt love before, and she felt terrible that it was eating at him so badly.

The day of the birthday soon came and Delia had already shipped off the catering for the party the day before. As she prepared to go out and catch the bus at seven, she was surprised when she spotted her Ash was outside on the street.

"Ash dear?" she asked worriedly as she walked up to him. She noticed a box he had in his arms. "What are you doing – have you decided you want to come to Misty's birthday party?"

"No," was the simple reply. Delia nodded, she wasn't going to try and make him do something he didn't want to do. She turned to go back inside when Ash spoke again. "Mom, am I pathetic?"

Delia turned around stunned. "What makes you that, dear?"

Ash didn't move from where he was, he just stared at the dirt road before answering. "Am I pathetic in that I can't control how I feel? That I'm so hung up on it that I can't even show up to a birthday party? And it's all because I'm in stupid fear of what I might see and how I'll react if I even see her showing affection for someone else, and it's all because I'm just so…"

"Ash, you are far from pathetic," Delia said firmly. "You don't want to go, you don't want to go. Don't feel like you have to show up. There's nothing wrong with protecting your heart from feeling hurt."

Ash just nodded sadly as he gripped the box he had in his gloved hands. He looked at his mother out the corner of his left eye before looking down again as he raised his arm. "Here," he began, "I…could…you give this to her for me and wrap it?"

Delia stared at the strange object. "What did you get her?" she asked gently, taking the box from her son's hands.

"It's a new book about the potential of water-type Pokémon, written by Lorelei and Wallace – this one is signed by Wallace," Ash said quietly, stuffing his hands into his pockets.

"But Ash," Delia began, shocked as she unwrapped the package to reveal he had been telling the truth, "how did you get this, these are expensive to and are in limited stock! How…?"

Ash smiled weakly. "It helps when you know the champion personally. They can always hook you up with a favor if you ask…"

Delia glanced down at the book and back to her son. "That's very sweet of you to do for her Ash…I'm sure she'll love it."

Ash's face fell a little bit, and he turned away from her so she wouldn't see the tears coming into his eyes. "No, not as much as she'll love whatever it is that Tracey gets her," he answered dejectedly. "The best gift she'll get today will be the one she gets from her boyfriend – not the one from some boy she travelled with years ago who says he's her best friend when he hasn't called even once at all…"

"Ash…I'm sure she doesn't think like that at all."

Ash looked at her with melancholic eyes and sighed in disagreement. Delia remained silent as she met his sad eyes. One look and she could tell Ash really had it bad for her, and it hurt her to see her son so torn up.

Ash looked away before slowly moving off. "Where are you going?" she asked.

Ash looked back over his shoulder and gave a small smile. "Brock contacted me yesterday and asked that I get him a few things from the shopping center for him," he answered truthfully. "I was going to take care of it for him today." He turned away before looking back once more. "Have fun, and if she asks about where I am, just tell her I wasn't feeling well," he murmured quietly, before walking away, his hands in his pockets and his head held low.

"Okay, take care dear," Delia said, as she watched him go. She sighed and looked at the book in thought, despite everything that he was going through with his feelings – and a lot of other things she no doubt knew he was experiencing internally that he didn't say anything about – her Ash had been brave by going out of his way to get Misty a gift, in spite of her unknowingly breaking his heart. Ash was experiencing so many conflicting emotions yet he held on all because he cared so much for her. "Oh Ash," Delia murmured as she held Misty's present, "you'll get your happy ending one day, I'm sure of it…" And with that, she turned and went to finalize her preparation to go.

When Delia got to Cerulean she was greeted to a large party hosted by the three Sensational Sisters who greeted her warmly. Delia had no doubt that if it weren't thanks to Misty's sisters, the number of people present at the party wouldn't have come.

When she got to the pool area where the main show was Delia looked around for Misty, it took her a while before she did. Delia found her walking around in a green sundress, looking around calmly. To Delia it seemed that the girl was looking for someone. Misty found her quarry soon enough, as Delia came within a few yards of her she watched as Misty wrapped her arms around a familiar figure, Tracey Sketchit.

"Misty, happy birthday dear," Delia said as she walked up to the happy couple.

"Oh, Mrs. Ketchum," Misty greeted ecstatically, "so good to see you, thanks for coming!"

"You're welcome dear," Delia greeted.

"Yeah, so glad you could make it, Delia," Tracey said.

Delia nodded. "Yes, it's good to see you too."

"So," Tracey went on, "how's Ash doing?" At this, Delia noticed a frown briefly coming over Misty's features.

"He's home right now," Delia began, carefully glancing over to view Misty's reactions, "but was unable to make it due to being sick." Upon saying that Delia saw that Misty had no reaction to the lie.

"Oh. Oh dear," Tracey replied, his reaction seemed genuine. "Hope he's doing well."

"Yes, he is for now," Delia responded. "He was upset about catching it though," she went on as she cautiously glanced at Misty, "he _really_ wanted to come today when he found out it was your birthday, Misty."

Misty's expression was blank and lacked any emotion. "Well Mrs. Ketchum, tell him that if he couldn't come, he couldn't come and that's that," Misty said plainly, and before Delia could say anything, Misty suddenly walked off to mingle, Tracey blindly stumbled after her. Delia stood still where she was, stunned by how little Misty seemed to care as if the girl had never known or cared about Ash.

Delia pulled the zipper on her purse and stared at the gift Ash had gotten for the Cerulean Gym Leader, she picked it up, found the present table, and placed it under a large stack whilst she remained lost in thought at the idea of Misty feeling so disconnected from Ash. All of a sudden, Ash's various descriptions of how he managed to feel cold feet at the sight of the 'new Misty' were starting to make sense…

 **O** o **O** o **O**

"Damnit," Ash hissed under his breath, as he kicked a rock. After he finished shopping for Brock and go the materials ready to be shipped to Pewter City, Ash had found he was left with nothing to do for the rest of the day, and so he, Pikachu, and the rest of his Sinnoh team had found themselves at the beach. Being there did bring Ash a smile, but as he gazed out onto the water, his thoughts had turned towards the being of his desires and all the fun she and her boyfriend were having.

He let out a frustrated sigh as he kicked another rock and sat down in a huff next to Pikachu. "Damnit, Pikachu," Ash grumbled, "why can't I just," he paused to collide his fist with the rock face they were sitting against, "not be bothered by it all?" he gritted his teeth in annoyance. "Damnit all…"

"Pikapi…"

"Aah!" Ash yelled in frustration, his sudden shout alarming nearby wild Pidgeys and Krabbys who all jumped in surprise. Ash failed to notice and seethed as he hung his head low.

Meanwhile just a few yards away was the Pallet Town Wharf. Whilst Ash was sulking and listening to the sounds of the ocean, dock workers and various ships were bustling about. At the pier closest to where Ash was a small freighter arrived and began unloading, one of the sailors got out as he helped to unload cargo, the sailor had set down his box when he turned to the ship and yelled something, prompting a grunt and soon footsteps bumping against the floor followed by a strange grunt unfamiliar to the Pallet workers…

Buizel sensed something and looked keenly over towards the dock. There, lumbering off of a ship was a mysterious Pokémon heaving a heavy pallet. The strange foreign Pokémon was bulky and blue, with red eyes and bumps all over its body to boot. Buizel became irritable at the sight of the intruder.

The Pokémon had placed down its burden when it sensed a presence. "Huh, what are ya doing?" its trainer asked. The Pokémon said nothing and glanced down the dock towards the beach where a Buizel stood with its arms folded, glaring at it. The Pokémon growled, and began to stalk towards the Sea Weasel Pokémon. Buizel too stalked towards it and both locked eyes.

Pikachu looked over from where he was resting under the shade of Torterra when he noticed Buizel having a confrontation. He ran over quickly to where Ash was sulking in a crisscrossed position and roused him up to.

"What's wrong buddy?" Ash grumbled when Pikachu started to bug him. Pikachu pointed toward where Buizel was standing off against the other Pokémon. "What is Buizel doing…hey, who's that other Pokémon?" Ash asked, he reached for his Pokedex and pointed it at the strange being but his Pokedex came up blank. "Oh wow, a new one."

Ash along with Pikachu ran over to the confrontation where the two were growling at each other, arms raised. "Woah, hey, Buizel, knock this off! Now's not the time to pick a fight!" Ash exclaimed.

Buizel turned, and begrudgingly did as told, though the other Pokémon was less impressed. "That Buizel yours kid?" the sailor asked.

"Um, yes," Ash replied with a nervous chuckle. "So sorry about this, Buizel likes to fight y'see."

"I could tell…" the sailor huffed.

"Uh, hey mister?" Ash ventured. The man turned around, slightly annoyed. "Who's this Pokémon of yours?"

"Humph, one of the best of the best I'll have you know. This is Seismitoad."

"A what?"

"Hmph, guess I oughtn't be surprised you don't know, folks back home know next to nothin' about Kanto Pokémon considering how few we have – or much of anything about any Pokémon from other regions except our own. Right, this is a Seismitoad, it's a water and ground type from the Unova region."

"Unova…where's that?"

"Far away kid, it's east of here and is miles away, took us by boat nearly a month just to get to here," the man answered gruffly, but his countenance turned less stern as he noticed how intrigued Ash was. "You might like it there, long travels, tough Gym leaders, quite the place."

Ash stared. "Wow, sounds like a great place to go to, doesn't it, Pikachu?" Ash said, glancing at his starter. Pikachu gave a cry of enthusiasm. "Thanks for telling me about the place."

"Bui bui!"

"Seis!" Both man and boy looked over, surprised by the sudden cry only to see their two water-types glaring at each other, looking ready to fight.

"Uh oh…" Ash said.

"Hang a moment kid," the sailor said.

"Huh?"

"That Buizel of yours, you said it likes to fight, right?"

"Um…yeah?"

The man smirked. "Then why don't we have a battle, looks like both of our Pokémon could do with burning off some steam. Plus," he added smugly, "my Seismitoad's been raring to go all out and beat something again."

"You're on! And we won't lose," Ash replied determinedly. He had lost to Pokémon he had never seen before in the past, he did not plan to lose again.

Ash's other Pokémon all gathered to the side, whilst Ash stood on the beach facing his opponent alongside his now known Seismitoad. "Oh, where's my manners?" the sailor suddenly said. "The name's Anthony."

"I'm Ash."

"Right then Ash, let's see what you got."

"You got it." _Right, Anthony said Seismitoad's a water/ground type, Buizel ought to be able to handle this_. "All right Buizel, use Water Gun!"

Buziel shot water from its mouth towards Seismitoad, the Vibration Pokémon stood where it was. "Use Hyrdo Pump," Anthony instructed. Seismitoad nodded and unleashed a huge gush of water. Pushing through the Water Gun and headed fast towards Buizel.

"Guh, Buziel dodge that!" Ash called. Buizel did so, jumping above the water as Ash and Pikachu had to move quickly out of the way. "Now use Sonic Boom!" Buizel gave a cry as it swung around with its tail glowing white to unleash the Sonic Boom. They all landed on Seismitoad.

"Use Hydro Pump." Seismitoad again unleashed the water, this time it hit Buizel, causing the Sea Weasel Pokémon to take damage and fall to the beach.

"Wow, that Seismitoad's something," Ash muttered. "All right, Buizel, Water Gun, again!" Buziel did so, again hitting the Vibrant Pokémon.

"Use Poison Jab Seismitoad!" Anthony's Pokémon gave a sharp cry and lumbered forward, its fist glowing purple.

"Counter with Ice Punch," Ash hollered. Both Pokémon ran and punched each other, but both refused to be pushed back.

"Hyper Voice!" Anthony yelled. Seismitoad opened its mouth and sent Buizel back.

But Ash wasn't done. "Fight back, use Water Gun." Buizel flipped over and unleashed the attack. Hitting Seismitoad fairly hard, Ash saw an opportunity. "Aqua Jet, now!" Buizel again complied, surrounded itself in water and charged at Seismitoad before bouncing back.

"Seismitoad," Anthony said, "let's end this. Use Hyper voice!" It obliged and fired, hitting Buizel, the opposing water-type got pushed back.

"Buizel, we won't lose, use Sonic Boom!" Through its mid-air fall Buizel managed to fire off two Sonic Boom's and hit Seismitoad.

"Seismitoad! Go and use Drain Punch!"

"Toad!" it yelled fiercely and went running, fist cocked.

"Buizel! Ice Punch, go!"

"Bui!"

Both water-types ran at each other and both got their hits off. They were both still standing up, battle scars all over them. Ash gritted his teeth as Buizel suddenly buckled. Seismitoad gave a smirk and it too buckled.

But right when Seismitoad seemed worn, it was Buizel who fell down defeated. "A good battle," Anthony declared.

"Thanks," Ash muttered in defeat as he recalled Buizel back into its pokeball.

"Y'know," Anthony went on as he fed Seismitoad an oran berry, "the Unova league meets in early spring next year. At the level you battle, you have what it takes to compete."

"Y-you really think so…?" Ash asked hesitantly.

"Yeah," Anthony said. "Anyways, it was a great battle – but now I have to get back to work, you really know how to waste a guy's time. See ya round kid." With that Anthony and his Seismitoad left before Ash could say a word.

"Unova huh…?"

Ash went home immediately afterward, and spent the rest of the afternoon on the family's computer searching up the Unova region. "Fastest plane ticket, fastest plane ticket…huh, look at this Pikachu," Ash said after a few minutes of browsing. "There's a transport copter taking people to Unova at Vermillion City. Next flight leaves...tomorrow." Ash stared, it was a chance of a life time, a new place, new Pokémon who are native to their region alone…Pikachu, this place sounds like a blast," Ash said, a spark in his eyes. "I'll arrange for us to go right now!" And immediately he began filling out forms for their tickets…

 **O** o **O** o **O**

"Mrs. Ketchum, are you sure you don't want to spend the night? It could be dangerous going out at this hour," Misty pleaded to her surrogate mother figure.

Delia gave a gentle smile. "I'd love to dear, but I have things to take care of back home that must be attended to. Besides you…" Delia was saying, but a slight crack came to her voice, luckily Misty failed to notice. "…Have your boyfriend spending the night with you, you won't need me to be around."

The party had been wonderful, but now it was nine at night and Delia had really needed to go home. But even so Misty had wanted Delia to spend the night at the gym once she had realized what time it was. But the older woman insisted she couldn't take advantage.

Delia gave Misty a pat on the forehead and told her she'd be in contact with the Gym leader once she got. I'm sure Ash would love to talk to you," Delia said.

"Looking forward to it," Misty said plainly.

"Bye dear, happy fifteenth birthday."

"Thank you! Bye Delia!"

"Yeah, and I hope Ash is okay!" Tracey called.

Delia was glad to be sitting alone in the bus. The whole ride back over towards Pallet Town she spent the time thinking over what she had seen at the party. Misty, her sweet surrogate daughter Misty seemed so happy, and had every right to be considering it was her birthday. But something had been amiss, she was happy, surrounded by family, but none of her friends were there to share in her joy. Brock couldn't have afforded to make it apparently, and all of Misty's other friends were too far away to come. It was plain to Delia why Misty didn't seem bothered though, she was too caught up in her boyfriend, so much so the orange-haired girl hadn't given much thought if any to her other friends.

Even her poor Ash, who she claimed was 'sick'. Delia knew he was sick, not in a literal sense, but in his heart, and it hurt her to know and witness that there was no reciprocation for him. Misty clearly did not care, she celebrated her birthday with reflection of her and Tracey, but not of anyone else. During the party Misty had given a few words to her friends, but referred to them ambiguously, simply saying they were former gym leaders, or travelling companions, some she gave some details to such as 'the sibling pair' when referring to May and Max – but Ash had received nothing, instead Misty said there was a third, and that was it. Delia felt her Ash had been completely snuffed.

Delia wanted to tell the Cerulean Gym leader off, but hadn't the heart too, she loved that girl too much – and it wasn't as if Misty was under any sort of obligation to her son, but it still felt wrong. Delia was glad when she could stop thinking about it all when she got off at the bus stop and began to walk home.

She was most happy to see Ash was up waiting for her. "Hey Mom!" Ash said as she walked in. He walked up to her, and opened him mouth to say something, but then curled into a frown before he looked away and asked, "So…how was the party?"

"It was good," she replied evenly, not wanting to give any hint of displeasure. "Everyone loved the food. Misty…" she noticed the way her son cringed upon hearing her name, "…had a wonderful cake. Here, I brought you a slice."

She reached into her bag and produced the paper plate with the cake in it. Ash drooled at the sight. "Aw thanks Mom," Ash said taking the plate and unwrapped it, he quickly fetched a fork and began to shovel it into his mouth. "So – how – was the party?"

"It was fine. Although it was quite the arrangement," Delia said, putting a hand to her cheek in worry. "No doubt it'll take them a while to clean up all tomorrow. But when they finish Tracey will be coming back here, Misty apparently as well."

"T-Tracey's c-coming b-back…w-w-with… _her_?" Ash stammered, choking on the cake. Just their names alone hurt him.

"Yes honey," Delia began gently. "You don't want to see them, don't you?"

"Mom, I'm going to a new region I found!" Ash suddenly yelped. "I heard about it today and I've already booked a flight to it!"

Delia stared, shocked. "Oh my…that fast, fell, it does get you away from them. What's it called?"

Ash told her everything he had heard and learned about the Unova region. Given the circumstances, Delia understood the predicament.

She spent the night and early morning preparing his new clothes for him to travel in – and so by the time afternoon came when Ash had to leave she had already finished them. "Just tell me if you get any taller and need a new set shipped," Delia told him.

"Thanks Mom, you're the best," Ash said. He checked the time and panicked. "Bye!" he yelled and ran off towards the bus station to get to Vermillion. He was just in time, as the next bus that arrived came with Tracey aboard…

As he flew out, Ash looked towards the region below, his home, and sighed. He knew why he was so keen to leave his home, but as they went further and further away, Ash's heart began to ache. It ached, because of her…

 **O** o **O** o **O**

That morning she opened her presents. But when she got to a particular one, the newly aged fifteen year old frowned upon seeing the name. "Hey, like, what's wrong Misty?" a high pitched voice said.

"Nothing," Misty called back. She turned back to the gift, she hadn't expected him to send something, she guessed he had his mom bring it over. She opened the wrapper up, and had to suppress a gasp at what it was. She had wanted one, but hadn't the money to afford it without it seeming like a waste – in addition, the book was signed by one of the authors. It filled her with a strange sense of happiness yet she also felt a cold overcoming her skin.

Misty gritted her teeth, it was stupid to think the way she did over a gift. She took the tag that said who it was from, and ripped it to shreds. She wasn't going to even think of his name…she was passed that. In her mind, his gift meant little to her compared to her boyfriend's gift for her. But something deep within her told her it was just as good, if not then just because the thought, better than her other gifts.

 **O** o **O** o **O**

To sixteen year old Ash Ketchum, Unova was but a mere smudge to him. When he got to the region he met the Professor, a pleasant young woman who had been in the middle of handing out the regional starters to a new trainer, a kid named Trip. This Trip had taken a dislike to Ash and battled him immediately. Ash almost felt sorry for the kid, almost because Trip was incredibly condescending. The kid talked big about how Pokémon from the Kanto region caused a stir, and referred to the place as 'The boonies'. Ash felt more sorry for Trip's Pokémon than for the kid who's pride he easily wiped when Pikachu defeated the novice Snivy with one Iron Tail.

Afterwards, luck ran out. Ash met Iris, a girl who talked and acted just like Misty. She was different from Misty, but during his time Ash saw many similarities between the Unova native and his…interest. One time Ash even accidently referred to Iris as Misty, but quickly covered his tracks.

Unova to Ash was too easy, he easily defeated the Gym leaders, and Trip was nothing more than a spiteful Yanma on the wall. During his time Ash had found himself capturing and taking care of more Pokémon than he usually did, but what struck him the most was why he had felt the need to have two water-types, Oshawott, and a Palpitoad. He kept and trained both but felt confused, somehow, something in him made him feel that it was definitely _her_ influence that made him catch the two, and it frustrated him

He was miles from her, yet even in a faraway land she was still haunting him. He hated it, and when he made the connection, once more, the nightmares returned.

He suppressed his feelings, and instead turned them around toward his training. It worked, and his efforts gave him the title of Unova league champion.

Ash sighed as he walked along the dirt path, being back in Kanto brought him little excitement when compared to his new friend Alexa – a journalist from the Kalos region – who was walking alongside him. Ash and Iris, along with their other traveling companion Cilan had met the journalist whilst cruising through the Decalore Islands. It turned out Alexa was also heading towards Kanto, with a heart set on interviewing Professor Oak. Cilan and Iris had left to do their own things, leaving Ash to head back to Pallet with Alexa.

Alexa chatted a great deal over her excitement to finally be in the region, but Ash was far from excited. When they got to Pallet Town, the first place Ash checked in was home. There he told his mom about his plan going forward before he left to go to Professor Oak's corral at her request to make sure Alexa and Professor were okay.

Ash sulked the whole way.

At the corral he found Alexa in the middle of talking to Professor Oak and was amused to see Bulbasaur with them. He greeted his two old friends and Bulbasaur jumped to run at him, Ash jumped the fence to meet him only to be mauled by his thirty Tauros, Ash was used to it and quickly recovered.

"You look awesome, Bulbasaur," Ash said as he petted the Seed Pokémon. "Hope I didn't interrupt anything."

Alexa smiled, "Not at all, Professor Oak was just introducing me to your Bulbasaur."

"Ah," Ash murmured, he looked around apprehensively. "So…Professor…where's Tracey?"

"As fate would have it, Misty invited him to the Cerulean Gym," Professor Oak replied cheerily, he was aware of their relationship but had no idea the effect his words had on Ash.

The raven-haired trainer's body locked up and his expression turned grim. Ash lowered his head till his hat casted a shadow across his eyes. "I see," he said simply. Alexa and Sammuel exchanged a look as Ash rose suddenly, Professor Oak blinked after getting a full view of what the teen looked like. "If you need me," Ash said plainly, "I'll be over the hill." And before either could get a word in, Ash walked off with Bulbasaur and Pikachu.

Alex and Professor Oak exchanged a look. "What was that about?" Alexa asked, stunned by Ash's sudden change of mood.

"Not sure," Professor Oak replied. He squinted to see Ash. "My, he's changed a lot."

"I've only recently met him," Alexa said. "Has he…always been like that?"

"The poor boy…" Samuel said ominously. They left it at that…

Ash and Alexa went back to his house after Alexa finished interviewing the Professor. "Mom, I'm back!" Ash called.

"Oh, hello dear," Delia greeted. "And you must be Alex, I heard quite a bit about you. I trust the interview with Samuel went well?"

Alexa smiled and began to tell Delia everything. "…I mean it's impressive that the whole thing is cared for by just two people. Professor Oak and Tracey are really something to be able to take ca–"

The sound of something colliding with a wooden table ranged out and both women jumped to see Ash frowning with a closed fist against a small table with a flower pot on it. Silence fell and Delia was about to open her mouth when…

" _Ring ring ring! Phone call, phone call! Ring ring ring!"_ All three residents, including Pikachu and Mr. Mime all jumped.

"Is it me, or did that thing get louder?" Ash grumbled.

"Ash, honey, could you get that?" Delia asked.

"Uh, sure thing," Ash replied, and hurried off to take the call. "Ketchum's residence," Ash said into the phone.

" _Like, hello, can I speak to an 'Ash Ketchum'?_ " asked a feminine voice. Ash froze, the voice sounded familiar and not in the good kind.

"Err – um – speaking."

" _Oh, it's you! Wow, you're voice has – like – really deepened…_ "

" _Yeah, we thought you – like – were someone else. Puberty_ was _kind to you with a voice that deep!_ " a different female voice called, that one being higher-pitched. Ash became even more uncomfortable.

"I-I'm sorry, but…WHO ARE YOU?!" Ash yelped.

" _Like_ ," began the lower toned voice patiently, " _just turn on your videophone's camera. It's not_ that _hard to do._ "

Ash blushed with embarrassment and hastily turned on videophone. Coming into view were two figures he recognized – Violet and Lily Waterflower. He gaped.

" _There, see?_ _Much better if we can see each other._ "

Ash's heart rate went up, sisters, _Misty's_ sisters, he felt uncomfortable. What if she wandered in, he didn't know how he would react if he so much as saw or heard her voice. The pain of being apart had already taken a massive toll on him as it was. "So…what do you two want?"

Violet and Lilly looked at each other – Ash noticed they seemed fidgety and nervous as if they were hiding something. " _Do I tell him?_ "

" _No you tell him! You're the one who like suggested it!_ " Ash gulped. _What in hell is happening…?_

The two sisters scratched their arms nervously before Violet spoke. " _Ash, it's about Misty…_ " she paused apprehensively, " _she needs your help_."

Ash stared blankly. "You two are asking the wrong guy, Misty doesn't need me. She's already got her boyfriend over there to do that for her. Why ask me, I'm sure that Tracey–"

" _They broke up!_ " Lilly cried out. " _It was Tracey – he cheated on her!_ "

Ash's jaw dropped at Lilly's outburst. "WHAT?!" he yelled.

Alexa and Delia were in the middle of their talk when Ash's voice yelled out and ran over to see what the matter was.

They found him staring at the videophone, and Delia instantly recognized Violet and Lilly. "What's going on here?" Delia asked.

" _It's um – err – a story…but, well, it's not_ quite _cheating…_ " Violet began.

"What happened?" Ash demanded in a serious tone.

" _Well…um, see…_ " Violet began uneasily." _Not too long, about maybe six months ago somehow Tracey sort of…began to take notice of Daisy…and well…she did too, we really don't know what happened but they started, like, making out or something...I-I swear we – like – didn't know a thing really. Daisy never said anything or gave us reason to be suspicious but then yesterday it well…all came out. Tracey said something about it now working with Misty and now she's heartbroken._

" _We didn't know who else to go to, obviously now Tracey's the problem. She won't talk to either of us. That Brock guy is in Johto at medical school – and none of her other friends are nearby or have a phone number to help her._ "

" _We heard you would be returning home soon, so we figured you were the best shot_ ," Lilly continued. " _Misty needs someone, you're her best friend._ "

" _Was_ ," Ash hissed, resentment seeping out of his heart. "What makes you think I'm the one who can help her? We haven't talked in two years…"

" _We know_ ," Violet said distressed, her eyes were pleading. " _We saw that you two haven't been in contact for a while, Misty's hardly said anything about you in the past few years. But we searched her contacts and you're the only one who can help her. Please Ash, come to Cerulean and keep her company? She needs you – you're the closest and the only one who can help her heart_."

"I…I can't," Ash said despondently. "It's been too long…you're better off asking my mom…"

" _Please…?_ " the two sisters begged. Ash bit his lip, when he suddenly felt someone's hand on his shoulder.

"Dear, please," his mother said "do it for her. They want you to help her."

"But Mom," Ash said with difficulty, his eyes were beginning to become red and tears welled up in them. "You've talked to her far more than I have, you should be the one…"

"Ashton," Delia said firmly. "You're the one they're asking for."

"But I…I…" Ash choked, he looked from his mom to Violet and Lilly. All were looking at him waiting. He looked round and noticed Alexa and Pikachu, who offered thumbs up in encouragement.

"I…I…" Ash began, "…I don't know what help I'll be, I don't know why you chose me…but okay. I'll help," he murmured.

" _Thanks, Ash, we'll be waiting, please come as soon as you can. We'll talk sleeping arrangements when you get here_ ," Violet said before ending the call. Ash's cheeks now had tear trails on them. He had no idea why he even agreed.

"It's the right thing to do," Delia said gently. Ash just bit his lip.

"It's too late to go now," he muttered, noticing the time. "I'll leave in the morning tomorrow. "

Delia nodded and went to go purchase his bus ticket. "Alexa," Ash said, standing up to meet the journalist. "So sorry I won't be able to see you to the airport–"

"Oh don't you worry about that," Alexa said with a smile. "I have to go back to Kalos regardless, besides I'll still meet you there when you touch down next month."

Ash let out a breath at hearing that. "Why couldn't there have just been an open seat now and I could go with you immediately to Kalos and not have to deal with this?" he lamented. "I could've said no…"

"Well, you know how airplanes are, always overbooked for months on end," Alexa interjected. "Besides, you should really take care of this problem first."

Ash nodded but said nothing as he hid behind the rim of his cap. He was far from looking forward to what he had gotten into.

The next day he collected his bag with new clothes, and pocketed the team he planned on bringing and collected his bus ticket. With Pikachu up top his shoulder Ash made his way to the bus stop.

He got on the one bound for Cerulean City and nervously got on a seat. Ash was nervous, his heart ached and he barely got much sleep beforehand. But most of all, he was scared of what he'd find upon getting to Cerulean…

 **End of Part One**

 **Authors Note:** Hey guys! Thanks for hanging in there, I know this part of the fic might've been a challenge, not surprised, with spacing between paragraphs of Time New Roman font at 11 this fic covered 19 pages and is 10,249 words long. I thank all of you for hanging in there with the palpable sadness that is this fic. Originally I intended to make the last chapter and this one a single chapter as it's currently titled but upon looking at the outline I thought it best to separate them, lucky you!

Surprised no one has taken to attempting the title naming challenge however, a bit disappointing that no one has tried to figure out who sung what. But I'll tell you guys the first two at least. _I was the Last to Know_ is from the song of the same name by Three Days Grace. _You Were so Happy…with Some Other Guy_ is from "Best Friend" by Jason Chen. Please guys, do some guessing!


	5. The Air Outside so Soft

**Authors Note:** Hey boys and girls! Your author here, I just wanted to quickly say thanks for all the reviews, interesting to see what you guys have to say and I must say the reactions have been amazing, it's not my intent to be malicious but I like that I'm able to hit the right cord with you guys.

However guys I must confess, I did originally want to finish this fic this summer, but real life got in the way and I haven't completed the chapters at the dates I wanted to complete them at, so I might publish the next chapter of this novella, and then take another break, because having to write day after day of this stuff is emotionally tolling and exhausting, but I will finish this this year, I know that! Shout outs to you anonymous reviewers, I do genuinely love you guys, you're all amazing, but to a Diana, what was GYCL? I'm genuinely curious as to what that is since I don't think I've ever heard of something like that.

By the way, last chapter's title is from the song "Not Thinking of You" by The Royal. Anyways, onto the fic!

 **O** o **O** o **O**

 **Part Two – Troubled Hearts**

 _ **The Air Outside so Soft**_

Instead of waiting for a bus to transport him round the city towards the nearest gym stop, Ash decided instead to walk the whole way from the bus station. He needed time to think.

Pikachu tried to ask him why, the only response was, "I don't want to rush in there," with a smile. Truth however was that Ash was far from comfortable with the situation.

"Why me?" he kept on saying quietly to himself. The whole walk over he also tried to make humor of the situation. "Ah jeez, Misty," he practiced, "I guess you two weren't all that perfect for…each other… after all…" he tried to play them off as light humor but the statement only ended with a pain in his chest.

"Man…this sucks," he grumbled. "Stupid timing, I just wanted to be home." He sighed thinking the situation. "I wonder how much has changed with her, huh, Pikachu? I mean it's been a few years – does she…y'know, keep the same interests, would she even recognize me? Is she…" he went very quiet and looked around till the crowd started to disperse as they continued down the sidewalk. "…still just as…a-as…" Ash found he couldn't form the words, they were lodged in his throat and he blushed just thinking about.

His thoughts were about her beauty. He hoped not much changed there.

"What the…? When did this happen?!"

"Pi Pikachu pika!"

Both trainer and Pokémon stared, surprised by the sight before them. The sign clearly indicated it was the Cerulean gym, Ash even asked a passerby if it was.

The gym was now nothing he had seen before. Instead of the circular building with a dome painted in a pattern of pink and orange, along with supporting beams twisting down to blue and white, with a gutter shaped like a waving ocean completed with a massive Dewgong on top, what Ash and Pikachu found before them was a pyramid.

"Well…I guess two years really can change things," Ash stated in awe. It also filled him with a nasty though, if in those short years what if everything really had changed. What if the Misty he found would be anything but the Misty he knew – the thought terrified him. Nervously he stepped forward through the hedged garden.

The pyramid itself was interesting – the triangular roof sections were separated, two facing vertically so if one looked at it from the front entrance it was divided down the middle with the actual roof underneath, and instead of curves for the walls, it was triangular with yellow, pink, and purple square shapes that were lopsided decorated the corners. The whole thing was just grey and metallic, with a moat surrounding it.

Ash crossed the moat, and passed the Greek-style pillars and stepped nervously before the new electronic doors. "Well…h-here we are," Ash gulped.

"Pikapi, pika chu Pikachu!" _Ash, just go already!_

Ash hesitated – he couldn't find the will to cross the threshold. It was as if his legs were glued to the pavement. Ash wouldn't lie, he was scared, he didn't want to go in but knew he had to. He forced his will, and was about to take a step forward – when suddenly the doors opened, Ash froze.

It was just Violet and Lilly.

"There you – like – are!" said Lilly before her eyes widened. Ash looked down quizzically, not sure what to make of the sudden silence.

Violet rolled her eyes and walked in front of Ash. "We're so glad you could come, Ash."

"Hmm," Ash hummed. The three walked inside, Ash seemed hesitant as they went through the new lobby and towards the Waterflowers' new private housing. "So…when did he…well…?"

"Just two days ago," Lilly said curtly, Ash noticed her hands were curling into fists as the pinkette spoke. "Misty never saw it coming, one moment the girl was thinking she had it good, next she sees her 'one and only' making out with her oldest sister."

Ash felt his own anger building up and he curled his own fists up. "Jerk," he muttered under his breath. Jealous he may have been, but even Ash didn't want Misty to be betrayed. His desire to see her smile had been the whole reason Ash chose to not tell her his feelings for her.

"Here's her room," Violet said when they finished climbing to the top floor. "Because our dear sister is the gym leader, she claimed the top floor bed room."

"She's been in there ever since the breakup," Lilly explained. "She's got her own bathroom so she's only ever come out to eat. But it's unlocked."

"Good luck," Violet said. Ash nodded, Pikachu squeaked nervously. Slowly Ash stepped forward and put his hand on to the door handle and carefully opened it. The sight that greeted him was sobering.

The room was dark thanks to the curtains being closed, and the carpeted floor was covered in arrange of various used clothes and tissues. Misty's bed was at the halfway point between the door and the other end of the room, the door being near a corner of the room – and on the bed laid Misty, with her back to the door, she seemed to be shuddering as her Azurill looked on dismayed at the state of her trainer from one of the polls on the footboard.

Ash stood in the doorway, unsure what to do, when to his surprise Pikachu left his shoulder, and suddenly Lily pushed him gently from behind, with Pikachu doing the same to foot. "Okay, okay," he hissed before looking at his target. Ash gulped and nervously entered the room, carefully stepping over a variety of shirts and shorts, Ash thought it best to keep going, not wanting to see anything embarrassing.

Pikachu followed closely behind. Ash approached the bed and felt a strange tingle in his chest cavity as he looked at Misty's fetus state, her face buried in a pillow that she was holding. Ash stood there feeling paralyzed, he breathed uncomfortably, and his heart thundered in his chest.

Finally Ash found something to say and he lowered down to her level. "Um…h-hey, Misty?" he began slowly. Suddenly there was movement and Misty flipped over to look at him. Her eyes were red and puffy. "It's – err – been a while…" Ash continued, stunned by the sight before him. He stared at her hair, now much longer than he had seen before, that flowing, beautiful long orange hair of hers…he wondered if she still pulled it into a side ponytail.

Azurill looked on at the scene, a bit shocked, her mama hadn't acknowledged anyone except her for two days and suddenly this male was extracting a reaction from her. However as Ash stared at her Misty suddenly rolled back and buried her head in her pillow. "Um…" Ash went on as he scratched his cheek nervously. "You're sisters called. I well – err – heard that you and Tracey – err – broke up…"

At the sound of his words he noticed Misty tightened her hold on her pillow. Ash breathed uneasily, the mental strain of the task was taking a heavy toll on him. "I'm sorry it happened, but well y'know…this… stuff happens…"

"But why me…?" he heard Misty mumble. Ash didn't know exactly how to respond. He stood in silence as he thought his words over, the whole while he also thought the same thing. _Why did_ I _have to be the one to get heartbroken by you though…?_ But now wasn't the time for self-pity.

"Well…see…it's…well…" Ash faltered and bit his lip. "…we all experience heartbreak…and it's… just a," he gulped, knowing what he was about to say next wasn't what he believed in, "part of…life. We've all have had to deal with it," he finished, with Pikachu chiming in agreement. At the sound of his words however Misty laughed bitterly into her pillow.

"Really now," she said loudly into the pillow, "the Ash Ketchum knows something heartbreak does he?"

"It's true," Ash replied defensively.

"Hmph," was her muffled reply. "And pray tell," Misty went on, pulling away from her pillow to face him, "when would've _that_ have happened at all..."

"Well – it – er – well it did happen!"

"Oh really, you sure your heartbreak is even _close_ to what I'm feeling? A relationship that lasted little over two years must sure be on par with whatever you lost."

Ash was shocked, but tried to not let her words get to him. "I'll have you know that what I lost was just as important to me as Tracey was to you."

"Oh please you can't possibly understand how I feel," Misty drawled as she sniffed and wiped her eyes, despite her melancholic look, Ash thought, the anger on her face was striking. "Don't even try to think you can come close at all."

"Well," Ash muttered, "who's to say I can't at all?"

"Pika!"

"Me."

"Well I disagree," Ash said, getting angrier at being brushed up. She didn't know what he'd been through. "What if things weren't even working out between you two at all, huh? He _cheated_ on you!"

"Tracey would never do that deliberately," Misty replied, venom drenching out of her voice.

"Well Misty," Ash replied, his patience wearing thin, "moping around like won't make things better! You aren't even trying. You use to be strong and able and now you're acting like a Goldeen out of water all because of a breakup! You know that you can get over this." _Yeah right, give that advice when I've done the exact opposite_. "Sniffling and crying over it is not the answer and you–"

"WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT HOW IT IS?!" Misty thundered suddenly, taking Ash aback as she sprung up and swatted a pillow at him with such force across his face, knocking his hat off and nearly sending him to the ground. Azurill cried out in shock.

Ash recovered and quickly put his hat back on, he was ready to snap, but when he looked up tears were falling once more down Misty's face so Ash kept his lips shut. "Don't…you…dare…" she began through her sobs, but she couldn't get any further as her tears consumed her. Her face dropped and the pillow she held fell to the bed.

Ash's heart fell as he watched her. She was hugging herself and was back in her fetal position, whimpering. Azurill cooed sadly and hopped over to Misty and tried to sooth her. Ash bit his lip, he had meant well, but all he did was make matters worse. He lowered his head in shame, Misty clearly didn't want to talk and he was essentially standing there for no reason, he quietly left.

Lily and Violet were waiting for him outside the door. "We overheard," Violet said once Ash closed the door behind him.

"It was hard not to," Lily added.

"You gave it your best shot."

Ash didn't reply as he hid under his rim miserably. "Come on," Violet beckoned, "you're sure to be tired after your long journey. Let me show you to your room."

Violet led Ash just down the short flight of stairs to where a small guest bedroom was. It was a simple yet cozy looking space. Ash thanked the two sisters and quietly made himself at home. Misty never came out of her room, Ash felt he had done enough damage and gave her space. Before and after dinner Lily showed him around the gym and all of its new areas. Ash went to bed that night with a lot on his mind…

 **O** o **O** o **O**

Misty awoke next morning and sadly gripped her duvet and wiped her eyes, even in her saddest moments she still kept to her morning routine, waking up and going to the bathroom before eating breakfast, Misty had figured her few days of moping around had been enough.

But after she finished relieving herself and picked up Azurill to go get something to eat, her thoughts turned back to the Gym's unexpected guest, Ash Ketchum, she hadn't seen or heard from him in a long time. ' _Just what are you doing here, Ash…?_ ' she thought to herself. It didn't add up, Misty thought, she and Ash had not talked together in a long time, but suddenly without warning Ash shows up at her gym and Misty couldn't help but question his motives, let alone the appropriateness.

"Maybe he's just here because my sisters put him up to it," she concluded. "But he'll leave eventually, like he always does…" _No point in stopping, him, he does what he wants and when he wants it done, he's always been like that_ , she added thoughtfully.

But when she reached the kitchen, Misty got quite the surprise. Violet and Lily were sitting around the breakfast table drinking their coffees and surfing the internet, with plates of fried rice in front of them. But what were more surprising to her were the sounds of a sizzling pan and the clinks of a whisk being used along with knives and other utensils, and it wasn't caused by her sisters.

"Did one of your boyfriends come over to cook?" Misty inquired to her sisters.

Violet simply looked at her before glancing back down at her phone, but Lily's lips curled into a smirk. "Why don't you – like – see who it for yourself…?" the pinkette implied sweetly before going back to her cup of coffee. Misty raised an eyebrow and gave an agreeable grunt.

Misty cautiously put Azurill down and walked over to see who was cooking, when she did, she got quite the shock. There in front of the stove with food that wasn't being burnt, calmly stirring away at a bowl of mixed eggs was Ash.

"A-Ash?" she breathed. Ash heard her and he turned around, giving Misty a whole view of what he then looked like. He was clad in a white shirt and grey shorts, and his usual messy hair was…its usual self and was out to see given it was cap less.

Ash stared at her, but quickly repressed anything from coming out. "Morning, Misty," he simply said, putting the whisk down. He had been bent over to check the pan but upon seeing her he rose up to his full height.

"Morning," she replied crisply. Aside from the sizzling sounds of spam on heat, silence fell between the two teens. Misty took a closer look, this guy was far from the Ash Ketchum she knew, his voice had gotten much raspier, and…

Misty moved forward, Ash flinched and moved out of her way, but as she got closer to him Ash's eyes widened. He blinked, shocked, last he saw her he still had to look _up_ just to meet her eyes, but now he had to look _down_ to see her, _really_ down.

Misty glared; her head would practically fit right underneath Ash's chin, she figured. The two stared, unsure of what to make of the situation. It was Misty who broke the trance. "So, you're cooking huh?"

"Um…well that is what I'm doing," Ash replied as he felt his body heating up.

Misty's eyes narrowed and she surveyed the state of the kitchen cautiously, everything seemed in order. "At least you haven't damaged anything, let alone burn the food," she noted, as the rice was frying slowly with the heat on a low setting.

"Why would I burn the food?" Ash asked incredulously.

Misty scoffed as she rolled her eyes. "Tch, it just seems like something you would do," she said curtly.

Ash just grimaced but remained calm. "Well, just so you know," he began, "it wouldn't be on purpose, I'm not _that_ klutzy. I should think that even _you_ could tell that, I'm not the same as I once was." Misty blinked at Ash's words.

"Okay, I'll see that then for myself," she simply replied. Ash wanted to say something, but couldn't find anything to say so he remained silent. He did some more preparations and then turned to see her reaction. When he turned however, he found himself stunned – instead of glaring eyes he found she was looking quiet and relaxed. Ash took that moment to check her out under the calm morning light, he couldn't help it, a lot had changed about her, and her new beauty – even in a wrinkled tank top and sports shorts, which with anyone else he wouldn't have had a second thought – was intoxicating. He quickly went back to attending to the eggs to distract himself.

"So, cooked for sisters did you?" said Misty after a period of silence.

"Huh? Oh yeah, Violet and Lily were really hungry when I woke up, so I quickly made some for them, but you were low on rice so they got the older stuff, this batch is a fresh one," he said hurriedly, pushing Misty out of the way to pour the eggs.

"Huh, thanks for doing that for them," Misty muttered. "So when did you learn to cook?" she went on. "Or has it always been something you've known how to do, but held back from the rest of us?" she asked teasingly, but her chuckle came out half-heartedly since wasn't in a laughing mood, but she tried to sound genuine. "Doesn't seem like a fair thing to do to Brock."

"No, I wasn't hiding it," Ash muttered as he tended to the eggs. "When Brock decided to become a doctor I well…asked him to maybe teach me a few things before he went – I mean without his cooking I doubt I could even live on my own if I had to constantly buy from restaurants and all that. After he left I-" he stopped short, realization dawned on him that if he kept talking he would've revealed why he didn't attend her fifteenth birthday, and he didn't need to do that. "…went to Unova and met a guy named Cilan, he was also a chef – pretty damn good one too – and I asked him to help me polish up my cooking skills a bit, and he did. That and I asked Mom for a few pointers and all that…" he trailed off as he began to mix the pan's contents.

"Interesting," said Misty, in a tone Ash didn't recognize. "Can I try some?"

Ash looked at her in surprise, but obliged and placed some fried rice on a plate and handed it to her. He felt dreadfully nervous as Misty took a spoonful and slowly brought it to her mouth.

Misty wouldn't have lied if she said she was nervous as Ash handed her a bowl. The sudden revelation that Ash knew how to cook shocked her, and made her nervous – especially after all the years of being pampered by Brock's cooking, and Tracey's cooking afterwards had been good too, Misty had gotten use to finer foods. To her Tracey had been quite the cook…plus the last time she checked, Ash stayed far away from any pot or pan, but all of a sudden he was able to cook? That Cilan must've been some sort to prodigy to get Ash Ketchum to cook an edible meal.

It just amazed her that Ash had learned how to cook before she could. As she thought it all out, Misty looked at the spoon and closed her eyes, and put it into her mouth. Her eyes shot open, Ash flinched.

"Wow, that's pretty good," Misty admitted, but without much enthusiasm, her reaction was genuine though, she was amazed at how nice the dish tasted.

"So… it's good?" Ash asked hesitantly. Pikachu who was on the counter immediately perked up.

Misty didn't respond, she just spooned more onto her plate and slowly began munching as she went quietly back to the table.

"So um… guess I'm not that bad, huh?" Ash quizzed as he joined at the table. Misty didn't answer and she kept on chewing.

"Um…" Ash faltered, unsure of what to say, "I know it's not quite on Brock's level of cooking..."

"That's one way to put it," Misty remarked, her sudden statement caught Ash off guard. "It kinda reminds me of what Trace–" Misty stopped and she stared at her plate as something hit her, a memory came back and it numbed her, she looked across the table and saw Ash with his new height and black hair, and it all became too much for her, he looked too much like him. Her breath quickened but she tried to shake the feeling off, she gripped her spoon so tight that it hurt.

"M-Misty? A-are you all right?" asked Ash, becoming alarmed at her sudden change in demeanor.

"Y-yeah," Misty said, looking away, sadness overcoming her countenance. Ash gulped, his heart feeling stabbed as he laid eyes on her sad face. Azurill cooed at her trainer sadly. As he looked, Ash noticed a free hand of hers on the table, something in him yelled to reach out and hold it but he suppressed the urge and tried to look at something else, but there wasn't anything there that caught his eye. Violet and Lily had finished their plates and had left the room well before he sat down, the only thing that seemed to be pulling at his eyes was…her.

Misty stared distantly, tears formed in her eyes; her heart ached and every breath she took felt painful. She and Tracey had shared mornings like the current one, and the fact that she could no longer experience that brought her to her knees. Ash and Pikachu stared at her slumped over figure; they could tell based on her small sobs what she was thinking about.

Ash wanted nothing more than to reach out and hug her and kiss her. The thought made him blush and he quickly shook it off. "H-hey," he awkwardly began despite her sobs, "it's…it's all right. It's not your fault." She didn't say anything. "Hey…it's all right," he coaxed. "Listen, sometimes things like this happen and we have to accept things the way they are…I know it's not easy but you can't spend your days moping around feeling sorry for yourself twenty-four seven, what's done is done and that's how it'll be. You're just going to have to get used to it and get past it for your own good, it'll be better that way – you can't live moping around the past."

"My own good…? _My own good_ …?! Get past it?! How dare you!" Misty suddenly interrupted, Ash jumped from the exclamation, and saw that Misty was glaring at him, tear trails trickled down from her eyes, they were red and furious, and her hand gripped her spoon even tighter than before. "Who do you think you are, Ash Ketchum? To come here and tell _me_ how I should cope with how I'm feeling about what happened? You dare to show up after being apart for _years_ and think you have _any_ right or authority to tell me what I should do like I'm still the same girl from three years ago, as if I can just pretend that I can just forget everything I felt for my boyfriend and bounce back?!" she shrieked.

Ash looked sadly down and said nothing, everything she said sent a painful needle through his heart, she was right, they hadn't talked in years, and he didn't know if she had changed. It would be arrogant to assume anything about her…

"You want to know something, Ketchum? I'm also feeling gutted because of _you_. Years ago I thought you were my friend, but guess what? I can't really even call you that anymore!"

"Ash…you…you…" she began to tear up slightly; her emotional catharsis was getting to her, "are you even my Best Friend anymore? Where have you been? You haven't called, emailed, or _anything_ to me at all and only _now_ do you show up? The last time I saw you, you didn't even say anything!"

"Misty, I…" Ash weakly began, but stopped as he couldn't find the courage to say anything.

"After all of that, _now_ you suddenly have the desire to be my friend again? After all this time – you've distanced yourself from me, Ash. You never called, emailed, nothing, your mom's been the one I've had the most contact with ever since we stopped travelling together, and when I got my…boyfriend it became worst. Why come back, Ash? Why now…?" she asked as she trailed off, the tears were back, and made her eyes glisten as she looked pleadingly at Ash. As Ash looked into her red tearful cerulean eyes, all the guilt and shame built up over the years crashed onto him, he felt physically ill and he shivered from the feeling.

"I'm sorry," Ash finally muttered, lowering his head in shame.

" 'Sorry?' That's it?"

"Please…I…well…see…travelling takes up…I…just…" Ash began, but he faltered and just looked glumly down at the wooden table. He closed his eyes and gave deep breath. "It's all my fault, and anything else is just excuses, I have no excuses to make. I have no real reason as to why I stopped talking to you. It was wrong, and I can't justify it. It's just I…" he began to choke on his own words as his emotions overwhelmed him he coughed for a moment or two, before regaining control over his voice in-spite of how much it physically pained him to keep talking.

"…You," he said, in a quiet, hurt voice, "it just…it…" Ash found himself struggling to say what he wanted to say. It felt so embarrassing and he felt that if he said it, Misty might catch on and figure out everything. "…it…I…" he gulped, hoping she wouldn't look further into what he was about to say, "…you with Tracey…it – well, I felt…it just…it felt…as…you just didn't want to talk to me anymore since you had Tracey…I felt…left out." It wasn't a lie, it was true that ever since the day he came home from Hoenn Ash had felt like an outsider in her world – Misty had never told him she was dating Tracey until he had to force the truth out of her.

Misty blinked, she felt caught off guard by his answer. "Y-you felt left out?" Ash nodded in response.

"You never said anything about it until two days after I saw you…and well, you said something about 'a boyfriend makes having boys as friends difficult' or whatever you meant…" said Ash quietly. "I just…assumed, y'know…that you didn't want to have anything to do with me, that and you didn't seem keen to see me given that you were…" Ash trailed off as he felt his heart breaking as he remembered what she had told him that day. Her words had sliced his heart in two that day, and the memory tore the wound open again, he gritted his teeth as he pushed through the pain, "…getting over your crush on me."

Misty felt her blood rushing to her cheeks as he said that, the old memory of her puppy-crush days came back but she quickly pushed them aside. "Ash," she began, "you think that just because I had a boyfriend meant that I wouldn't ever want to talk to you again?"

Ash frowned. "You're the one who said it…not me," he muttered. "I kinda assumed that you didn't want to talk to me anymore after all that."

"I…well," she faltered and looked shamefully down. As she stared at the table, Misty felt a terrible guilt go through her; she couldn't deny it, she had said harsh things to Ash and admitted, without shame, that she had once crushed on him but all without ever considering how her romantic relationship would affect her friends. She had given him the cold shoulder when he came home two years ago, and had only ever given him one lure of hers after they stopped talking, she hadn't helped the situation at all.

"I'm sorry," Ash said whilst Misty was deep in her thoughts. Her head snapped up at Ash's remark, and the guilt all came flooding to her throat.

"No," she quietly relented, Ash looked up, surprised, "you shouldn't be sorry. It's my fault. I…never even told you about me and Tracey at all, _I'm_ the terrible one here," she began to sob a little, but held her own as she wiped her eyes. "I shouldn't have treated you the way I did, I thought…foolishly, that if I kept away from you I could keep my old feelings at bay…not that I still have any for you!" Misty quickly said, holding her hands out in a panic, thinking that Ash would be too put out at the thought of him ever being her 'interest'. But Ash felt as though sharp ice was falling on him once more at her words, he bit his cheek and averted his eyes to the plate of rice before him, a fist she couldn't see under the table clenched tighter as Ash's heart ached.

"I was being stupid, I'm sorry," she went on. "It's just I…I…I was so caught up in myself and Tracey, I…" she trailed off, Azurill looked nervously at her mother as she wiped her eyes, the hatred and anger she had felt was long gone, she looked sadly up at Ash. "What I did was unforgivable, and for that I'm sorry, I'm so, so, sorry…"

"Stop saying that, you're forgiven," Ash said instantly, the sight of her crying pained him and he knew he had to make her stop.

"You don't have to forgive me…"

"And I said to not beat yourself up over it," Ash said firmly. "It's completely all right. You were in love with Tracey, that's nothing to apologize for." Misty said nothing and just glanced down as Ash looked on stoically.

But even though he was wearing a brave face, deep down Ash felt miserable. His mom's words played on his mind – to keep her to himself would be selfish and unfair, she had to walk her own path, even if it was one where Misty and him would never get together; it would be her choice, he couldn't force her to like him. If they were going to be together, it wouldn't be because of how he felt, she had to feel the same to, and so far to Ash the chances were very unlikely.

"..And," Ash began quietly to break the silence, "to answer your earlier question – I came back because I care about you, a lot, you're my best friend after all. I didn't want you to feel too bad about your…break up. You don't have to feel alone."

"Thanks for the consideration," Misty quietly murmured as she felt oddly comforted by Ash's words, her eyes also having slightly widened at them.

"No problem," Ash replied.

They ate their breakfast in silence. During the meal Misty's mind turned back towards Tracey, she felt uncomfortable, Ash was now just about as tall as her ex, and the physical similarities between them reminded her too much of Tracey. Misty inwardly panicked, _Ash is not Tracey, Ash is not Tracey_ she had to keep repeating to herself. She and Tracey had shared too many mornings just like the one she was currently having with Ash, and it was all too much for her.

Ash quietly observed Misty, he could somewhat tell what was on her mind, it hurt him to see her beating herself up over it all. "Still thinking about Tracey?" he cautiously ventured after a while.

Misty sniffed sadly. "Y-yeah…" she said, suddenly standing up. "Thanks for breakfast by the way." And with that she scurried out of sight.

"Where are you off to?"

"My room…" Misty replied glumly. Ash watched her go, his heart falling at how sad she looked as she walked away, her hands in her pockets and her head held low.

"Damn it," he hissed, angered at how insensitive he must've sounded to her. But before he could do anything else, Ash felt a cold breeze hit his face suddenly, he looked around to find the source, he spotted an open window, but what lay beyond it caught his eyes. The day looked so beautiful, bright sun and very few clouds – it all looked so…calm, and peaceful. Ash smiled as an idea came to him.

"Pika Pikachupi…" _Poor Misty…_ the Mouse Pokémon muttered.

"Don't worry, Pikachu," Ash said turning towards his partner, as he pumped a fist. "I know what'll cheer her up."

 **O** o **O** o **O**

Misty had retreated back to her room, whether Azurill followed or not was no concern to her as long as her baby kept inside the Gym that was all that mattered. Misty plopped back onto her bed and laid her face onto a pillow. She was ready to mope all day as she stared at her nearby vanity; on said vanity were pictures, and the biggest one she could make out was with…Tracey. Misty felt her insides crumble at the sight and she turned her wet eyes into the pillow.

Her moment of self-pity was suddenly interrupted by a loud knocking on her door. "Go away," Misty muttered yelled halfheartedly. The knock came again, her brow twitched in annoyance. "I said to leave me alone!" she yelled.

"It's me," the only male voice in the house called. Misty groaned as she recognized the voice, she hesitantly went to open her door.

"Yes, Ash?" she asked quietly.

Ash smiled gently at her. "Would you like to go out for a walk with me, Misty?"

"A-a…walk?"

"Yeah, y'know, a walk, out there, in nature."

"W-why…?"

"Because I don't want you to mope all day in here," Ash said, motioning towards her dark, messy room. "Please?" he pleaded. "Do you really want to spend all day moping in here rather than being out in the sunshine? I mean come on!" he said, grabbing her by the wrist, causing a wave of heat to go up his arm, but he ignored the flash, he had to be focused. His sudden hold surprised Misty be she could do nothing as he dragged her along towards the window at the end of her hallway. "Just look at all of this beautiful scenery," Ash proclaimed, holding a hand out to wave over what could be seen from the window, "and you're going to pass all this up just to lay in your room all day?"

Misty sighed indecisively. But she grimaced as she took in the sight, it did look beautiful…and it had been a while since she had gone out… "Okay, fine," she hesitantly said. "I'll go out with you…"

A few minutes later Misty was ready with Azurill and the two headed out with their Pokémon. Ash didn't really have a clue on where he wanted to take her, so he wandered around to see where his mind took them, but he knew right away that he didn't want to stay in the city. His instincts brought them out of the city, and along a path that reached a forest.

Ash felt better with their new green surroundings, something about it strangely comforted him and he felt at ease compared to being in the heart of the city. He looked over to Misty to see what her reaction was, but when he looked at her he suddenly felt a strange nostalgic sense washed over him and it numbed him instantly.

Ash couldn't explain how, but being alone with Misty in those woods brought back the old feeling of when he had felt he was on top of the world, the same euphoria he had had when he first captured Caterpie with Misty as his witness in Viridian Forest all those years. The feeling was strong, Ash felt that if she and him were together he could take on anything, he missed that feeling, when it was just him and her, before Brock…before Tracey. He remembered how whenever it got be just him and her felt had once felt higher than anything his young brain could know.

The once fond memories of days gone by flashed through Ash's mind quickly, and he felt overwhelmed at the burst of nostalgia. His step faltered at the thought, and Pikachu was quick to be concerned as Ash nearly lost his footing, but the raven-haired trainer quickly recovered and brush it off. Misty expressed concern as well, but Ash deflected it – choosing instead to focus on the greenery around them.

"It is beautiful," Misty agreed as she took in the bright green leaves whilst she walked over to rest on a fallen tree trunk. "Honestly I didn't even know a forest like this was so close to my home."

"You really haven't heard or been here before?" Ash asked, surprised yet amused.

"No, not all. Didn't even have a clue this place was here till now," replied Misty.

"Seriously?" Ash was surprised. "You didn't even look around for places like this when you were walking out with…Tracey? He never took you out like this?"

"No…" Misty paused to recollect her memories, "we didn't really go out nature walking at all. We mostly kept to the city, Tracey, he…" she choked a little, Ash felt instant regret at bringing the Pokémon Watcher's name up. But Misty continued before he could apologize. "…He mostly liked to walk around the city, sure he liked adventure, but he wasn't into trail blazing or getting lost...like you did."

"Oh," was all Ash could say as he ignored her subtle dig at him.

"Yeah…" Misty replied. "Tracey preferred staying in one place – he sort of just wanted to put his roots down and didn't want to go out into any unchartered territory. We played it safe, he wanted to keep me safe and he liked drawing me at old familiar places… he was sweet like that, he liked building up familiarity with the locals who came consistently to spots like Cerulean Cape and we went there so often the locals that were there every day started calling us 'that artist couple', Tracey often told me he did that on purpose just to show the world how close we were…" Misty sighed as she spoke, the thought alone had brought her tears, she was so busy reminiscing she never noticed Ash's own reaction. His face had turned hard, and his right hand, which was out of sight, curled in anger, Tracey had done all of that build up, only to bring it all down. _That selfish jerk…_

"Y'know, it's weird, being out with you, like this," Misty continued. "Reminds me of when we use to travel together…"

Ash looked at her in surprise. He bit his lip and gulped nervously but didn't say anything.

"Course I wish Tracey was here…we use to hang out, not in these settings but…this would be the type of situation back in Pallet Town where we'd…" she shook her head, not wanting to keep going, Ash grimaced and did his best to prevent feeling emotion, but his hands were digging into the trunk hard to keep himself from acting out. It just wasn't right…for her, or himself. He would've given her the time of day for stuff like this…

"H-hey," he ventured, "it's all in the past, right?"

Misty looked away as if she needed to think Ash's words over. She remained silent for a few minutes before turning back to look at Ash. "Yeah…you're right, all in the past…" she repeated, her tone sounded as if she had had a major epiphany. "So…what have you been up to?"

"Oh, jeez uh…well…"

 **O** o **O** o **O**

"…You won the league?!"

"Yeah, it wasn't easy, but Pikachu managed to tough it out against Virgil's Eevee, didn't ya, buddy?"

"Pi pika!" Pikachu said as he pumped his fist.

"Wow…" Misty breathed, awed. Her eyes were wide from the shock of learning that Ash was now a league champion. "H-how does it feel…?"

Ash's face fell slightly, and he turned to look absent-mindedly at the ground away from her. "Honestly…not really all that different from getting top four…I just… I dunno."

"That's it? You don't feel like you're on top of the world or anything like that?" Misty exclaimed. "You did it, Ash! You achieved your dream!" Ash didn't respond, he just kept looking at the ground as if it was the most interesting thing ever.

 _Truth be told…being the league champion doesn't make me feel all that special…if I compare it to you, that is…_

Misty frowned as she was becoming more and more irritated as the seconds passed without a response from him. She was honestly flabbergasted that Ash won a league, yet seemed to not care about it at all.

"All right, that's it!" Misty said as she stood up, she turned to face Ash, her voice causing him to raise his head towards hers as she pointed a finger at him. "Ash Ketchum – I – Misty Waterflower, Gym Leader of the Cerulean Gym challenge you as the Unova League's Champion to a battle!"


	6. There's No Peace of Mind!

_**There's No Peace of Mind!**_

Ash had to seriously question how he had gotten himself roped into battling her, he thought as he stood before the gym's new battle arena as he looked over at Misty on the other side of the field.

Their referee was Violet, who stood in the middle off to the side. Because Misty was occupied yelling at her sister, Ash took the moment to survey his surroundings more closely, when Lily had shown him around, the lights were out in the battling field, and at the time he hadn't taken the time to properly take in the layout.

The field consisted of a rock oval surrounding a massive water arena – a stark contrast to the old rectangular one from before which had used large floating mats to allow non-water-type Pokémon to battle. As Misty was preoccupied with her sisters, Ash look absently around the new battling room, and noted that the new layout wasn't quite as friendly with all Pokémon types as Juan of Sootopolis' Gym field had been, or the one Pike Queen Lucy had, but Misty's was still feasible enough to allow there to be a fair advantage for both water and non-water types.

He was also left to wonder whether or not Tracey had had any input on the new design…

Ash was so lost in thought he never noticed when the water had stopped and that it was ready for their battle. "All right," called Violet, the sudden reality of his impending battle spurred Ash up from his reverie, "this'll be a three-on-three full battle between the Gym Leader, Misty, and Unova League's champion, Ash. The battle will be over when all three of either side's Pokémon are unable to battle – furthermore, only the challenger will be allowed to substitute their Pokémon, the Gym Leader may not."

Misty narrowed her eyes, to her Ash may be a champion now, but she still had her pride as a Gym Leader on the line and she refused to be beaten so easily. Ash meanwhile at the sound of Violet's standard referee speech immediately hardened up, his eyes became focused and his mind drifted to just battling, nothing but battling and analyzing. In recent years Ash had found Pokémon battling to be a wonderful escape from everything, once he got going, everything else was a blur.

"Right then," said Misty to herself before looking towards her opponent. She quickly fumbled into her pocket for her first choice. "I choose you, Corsola!" she flung her ball into the air and Corsola popped out onto the rock face in front of Misty, the Coral Pokémon gave an enthusiastic cry.

Normally to battle water-types Ash's first choice would be Pikachu, but Ash had chosen not to give himself the advantage. At one point not long ago after he defeated Crasher Wake, Ash had realized that in all of his prior battles against Misty, he won because he had used Pokémon with a type advantage against her solely because he had the match up, but in the onetime where he had battled her using his own water-types during the Whirl Cup, and he had lost – badly too, it was a huge embarrassment to him to lose to her Psyduck the way he had. For the present match, he wouldn't use type advantage, grass or electric-types weren't an option for this one. He was going to take her on with pure strength just to show her how much better he had become, Ash wasn't sure where the desire stemmed from, but something about it seemed wrong to him, he had to prove he could train water-types.

"Corsola huh?" Ash muttered when he saw her choice. "A water/rock-type…" He quickly reached behind him for a ball. "Oshawott, I choose you!" he hollered. He flung his ball with a lot more show than Misty did, and his Sea Otter Pokémon materialized onto the rocks.

"Osha, Oshawott!" the Sea Otter chirped. Ash gritted his teeth, _I can't lose this_ , he thought.

Pikachu, who was watching from the stands, looked on worriedly at his trainer, ever since Misty's less than kind words from those years ago, Pikachu had noticed that Ash had never been the same – any thought or reminder he had gotten of her had deeply affected him and Pikachu could remember every night when the nightmares Ash had of her were at their worst, his trainer spent many quiet hours psychologically tortured – and things like the lure, the mermaid show, and being home had made them worse or even affected his health. Pikachu dearly hoped that Ash wouldn't have a break down during the match, it had been bad enough when Ash had turned that sadness into cold training, but now the catalyst was the very one he had to fight, literally.

"This battle may now start," called Violet.

"Oshawott, use Water Gun!" Ash yelled.

"Wott!" the Otter called as he shot a thin, concentrated jet of water from his mouth. It hurdled across the field and towards Corsola. It was fast, and even though Misty gave a cry to dodge it, Oshawott was too fast and it struck Corsola, who shook it off.

"Corsola, use Spike Cannon!" Misty ordered.

Corsola cried out and made his body glow white, and then fired a barrage of spikes from his horns. "Look out, Oshawott," warned Ash. The Otter Pokémon braced himself by holding his scalchop out and took the attack, pushing him back a few inches. "Use Water Gun again!" Ash ordered.

Oshawott did so and fired hard, Misty's eyes twinkled and she smirked as the attack hurdled towards Corsola. "Now use Mirror Coat!"

"La, Cors Corsola!" Corsola grunted as he glowed, took the Water Gun and mirrored it back towards Oshawott at double the power. The Otter flinched, and held his right arm across him in front in fright. But Ash's countenance was neutral, he wasn't scared.

"Now, Oshawott," he said calmly as his brow lowered, "use your counter-shield."

For a moment Oshawott looked back, confused. But as he stared into Ash's eyes the order suddenly made sense. Oshawott quickly flopped onto his back and spun round as he used Water Gun. Oshawott's deflected move came nearer and nearer, it hit the strange vortex, swirling and convulsing against Oshawott's vortex, before chunks of the reflected attack headed towards Corsola.

Misty told Corsola to dodge the projectiles, but they were unpredictable, and a few of them hit Corsola in the side and directly to the face, once that was done Oshawott stopped and stood up. Misty growled, frustrated by Ash's clever maneuver. "That was good…" she conceded in a whisper to herself as she frowned before she became more determined. "But I can do better!"

"That was great Oshawott, keep it up."

"Now Corsola, use Power Gem!" Misty hollered. Corsola did so and fired a series of orbs that were pink with blue sparkles towards Oshawott.

"Counter that with Water Gun!" Oshawott cried in confirmation and fired the attack, but his spout missed, it still hit Corsola, but only just as the Coral Pokémon had tried to dodge it, the Power Gem hit Oshawott, but like Corsola he too had been trying to dodge the incoming attack that had been heading his way, but like Corsola still got struck on the side.

Smoke flew everywhere from the impact of their exchange, blocking everyone's view of the field and the Pokémon. Misty was quick to take advantage of the confusion. "Quick Corsola, get in close to Oshawott!"

"Be careful Oshawott," Ash called, peering into the smoke, "Corsola could show up or attack at any moment."

Oshawott heeded the advice but he couldn't make out his surroundings. Misty smirked as she had her opponent's Pokémon right where she wanted it.

"Now Corsola, Power Gem!" Corsola's cry startled Oshawott and suddenly he found himself perilously hoping out of the way of several pink and blue orbs. But just as the smoke began to lift all the way, one of the orbs smacked him in the front and Oshawott went flying before landing on his back just as Corsola became visible.

Ash grimaced when he heard Oshawott's cries during the temporary smoke blockage, and frowned as he watched the Otter fall down. But his water-type proved persistent as he begrudgingly stood back up. "That's the way," Ash said to it. "Still," he muttered to himself, "that was pretty clever using the smoke to attack up close..."

Misty wasn't finished with her onslaught of attacks, however. "Let's use Spike Cannon, now!" she yelled, a strange exhilarating feeling coming over her.

The white spikes flew out in a contained line towards his opponent. "Charge, Oshawott" Ash commanded, throwing his right arm to side. Oshawott took off at a quick pace and swerved out of the Spike Cannon's line of fire. "Now use Razor Shell!"

Misty never saw a Razor Shell before and watched nervously as the Otter Pokémon quickly reached for his scalchop, pulled it off as it began to glow and formed a razor. Oshawott then jumped and looked as it was about slash Corsola. "Dodge that, Corsola!" she yelled.

Corsola barely jumped out of the way as Oshawott slammed into the rocks. "Use Spike Cannon, again!" Corsola cried and fired again at the Otter Pokémon who was helpless to the attack, but he stood strong as he endured the attack.

"Razor Shell!" Ash yelled once the attack stopped. Oshawott went running, Corsola tried to dodge it, jumping out of the way once more, the Otter Pokémon slashed the rocks, causing a blast of rock which caused Corsola to hurdle into the air.

"Corsola!" Corsola cried, as if taunting Oshawott how he'd never land a hit against him as he began to descend a few feet away.

"Wott!" Oshawott yelled defiantly, he ran towards the Coral Pokémon and once he was within range took a swing at Corsola's stomach. His Razor Shell made contact, Corsola stopped cold, but Oshawott wasn't done yet, and with a hard effort he finished the attack by chucking Corsola into the water. Corsola yelped in surprise as he was sent spinning into the water and hit the surface with a hard landing.

"Corsola!" Misty cried, shocked at how strong Oshawott seemed as she watched Corsola take the fall.

"Great job!" Ash called. "Now let's take this battle to the water!" he said, pointing towards the water. Oshawott yelled in affirmation and dove into the water.

Corsola felt terribly shaken, the force of the Razor Shell had taken its toll on top of being flung by the same attack. He shook his head, trying to collect himself after being forcefully submerged into the water. Another splash could be heard as Oshawott joined him in the water. The Coral Pokémon grimaced and began to swim away.

"Corsola, keep your distance, use Power Gem," Misty ordered.

"Dodge that," Ash countered. Oshawott managed to quickly swim out of the rock moves way and soon began to swim off.

"Quick, Corsola, chase after Oshawott!" Misty called. "Corsola has to keep close to Oshawott, if we try to attack from afar Oshawott can just easily dodge or counter it…" she added quietly to herself.

Corsola did as told and began to tail Oshawott as both swam about. The Otter Pokémon grimaced when he noticed the Coral Pokémon was following him. Then without warning Corsola suddenly charged towards him. Frantically he picked up speed – then from the waves he heard Ash giving him a command.

"Use Aqua Jet!" Quickly Oshawott swerved and slowed down. Corsola, caught unawares, sped right past him, Oshawott took advantage and charged forward. Corsola turned around just in time to get hit head on by Oshawott's water boosted Aqua Jet. The Coral Pokémon gave a cry as he was overpowered.

Ash and Misty both stared at the frothing water when suddenly the two Pokémon emerged with Corsola being pushed off by the Aqua Jet and into the air above the field. "Ah! Corsola!" Misty cried as her Pokémon landed upside down in front of her. Meanwhile Oshawott landed landed perfectly in front of Ash, but was panting heavily from exhaustion.

 _Oshawott's starting to run out of steam, we've gotta wrap this up quick_ …

"Corsola," said Misty, "use Recover."

"Corso…" Quickly the Coral Pokémon glowed white as he began to recover some stamina.

"Oh no…" Ash grimaced. He and Oshawott watched until the glowing stopped

"Time for a counter attack," declared Misty. Corsola hummed in agreement.

Suddenly Ash's stance changed, his legs were apart as he brought his left side in and stepped his right side out as he angrily held out his right hand. "Oshawott, use Hydro Pump now!" he yelled.

"Osha!" Oshawott quickly opened his mouth and fired the Hydro Pump which jetted across the field. But before Misty could say anything, Corsola got struck by Oshawott's move which sent him flying back and into the wall.

"Corsola!" Misty cried. The dust from the collision cleared, and lying on the floor with swirling eyes was Corsola, utterly defeated. "Knocked out, even after a Recover…" she breathed quietly.

Violet quickly raised her left hand, signifying Ash's side of the field. "Corsola is unable to battle. Oshawott's the winner."

"Wow, Ash sure ended that quickly," Lily commented from where she was behind Violet.

"Corsola, return," Misty said as she sadly recalled the Coral Pokémon into his ball. She then turned the ball's button towards her and looked sympathetically at it. "Thanks for your hard work," she added before pocketing it.

Oshawott meanwhile was flexing his little arms with a smug grin on his face. "Not bad, Ash," Misty called out; Ash didn't respond. "But that's only one win, just you wait." Ash still didn't say anything – instead he reached for a Pokéball and recalled Oshawott into it.

"Swapping already…?" Misty quietly questioned. "Well, whatever," she said out loud as she reached for her next choice. She smirked as she gently played with it in her hand. "I choose you…Pysduck!" With a quick throw of her hand she released her Psyduck onto the battle field.

"Psy?" the Duck Pokémon said lamely as it appeared onto the rocks. Misty looked up to see Ash's reaction, but instead was greeted with a stony look in the raven-haired trainer's face.

Ash grimaced, there was no way Misty would've chosen Psyduck so easily, it only served to remind him of how he had lost back at the Whirl Cup…he refused to allow Psyduck to defeat him again. _Water-type that can use psychic-type moves, I've got to be careful_. He reached behind him and grabbed a ball. "I'm counting on you," he said gravely to it. "Unfezant, I choose you!" he yelled, throwing the ball into the air above the water.

"Unfez!" she exclaimed as she flapped her wings.

"Quick," Misty began, before eagerly throwing an arm out, "Psyduck, use Water Gun!"

"Psy?"

"Um…"

Ash raised an eyebrow, but decided to still play cautiously. "Unfezant, use Aerial Ace!"

"Fez!" The Proud Pokémon charged and veered to the right before hitting Psyduck in the ribs. Psyduck cried out in pain before suddenly firing a Water Gun. But Unfezant quickly swerved out of the way.

"Use Air Cutter!" Unfezant circled around and from her wings fired a series of x-blades towards Psyduck, the Duck Pokémon panicked hysterically as it tried to dodge all of them, but various bangs from beneath the rocks as the Air Cutters hit the surface and imploded on contact caused him to keep falling over or be damaged.

"Psy…" he moaned as his head kept getting banged over and over.

"Hang in there…" Misty pleaded quietly as she watched Psyduck squirming and writhing..

"All right," Ash said after Unfezant had stopped the attack, "use Aerial Ace!" The Proud Pokémon charged once more and hit Psyduck straight on the head. His eyes went wide. "Oh no…" he breathed.

Suddenly Psyduck's eyes began to glow. Misty smirked triumphantly. "Now, use Psychic!" Psyduck's eyes glowed further and grabbed hold of Unfezant who sweated nervously as she was about to be thrown to the wall.

"Hang in there!" Ash shouted. "Flap your wings!" Surprisingly Unfezant actually achieved in doing as Ash commanded of her. She flapped desperately as she hit the steel wall. In her wake was a crater as Unfezant grimaced and flew off.

"Not bad," Misty said quietly, smirking at how much damage Psyduck had managed to inflict. "Now then, Psyduck," Misty went on, "use Water Gun!" Psyduck did so and quickly shot the move from his beak towards Unfezant.

"Double Team, go!" Ash yelled determinedly. Unfezant quickly duplicated herself and the Water Gun hit a duplicate where the real Unfezant had been. "Now use Air Cutter," Ash continued as he did his best to maintain composure despite how high his nerves were.

"Unn! Fez, fez, fez!" Unfezant yelled as she and the duplicates shot the Air Cutters, some hit Psyduck but the rest went all over. But even as the barrage went on, Psyduck didn't seem to flinch.

"Hahaha," Misty laughed heartily, "nice try, Ash! But that won't work on Psyduck. Now," she continued, a little more fiercely, "blow them back – use Psychic!"

"Psy!" And much to Ash's surprise – and déjà vu – Psyduck surrounded himself in a pink aura of psychic energy before he blasted it all around him, blowing the clones back and hitting the real Unfezant hard.

"Ugh," Ash grunted as he watched Unfezant reeling from the pain. "Bloody hell," he muttered under his breath as he gritted his teeth, "I _knew_ I had to take care to not give Psyduck a headache but... damn it…" he paused to consider his next move. "All right," he called out. "Use Aerial Ace and aim for the belly!"

Unfezant did as told and hit Psyduck in the stomach, sending the Duck back a few feet. Unfezant backed off, but not before Misty gave an attack order for Psyduck to use Psychic to push Unfezant back in the wall.

"Fez!" Unfezant yelled as she was pushed back.

A glint came to Ash's eyes. _Just as I thought_ , he thought as a small smirk came to him. "Unfezant, behind you, use Air Cutter!"

"What is he…?" Misty trailed off, unsure what to think as Ash's Unfezant began to fire the Air Cutters. Then it happened…

Unfezant wasn't sure what her trainer was up to, but she still obliged and quickly shot her the attack behind her. The x-blades pelted the wall and as she hit it, she realized what Ash had meant.

Ash grimaced as a loud thud of concrete being pushed in was heard – the area where Unfezant was thrown against was smoking from impact. Misty smirked, closed her eyes and chuckled. "And that's that…"

"Not yet it's not."

Misty's eyes snapped open and then looked towards the spot Unfezant was thrown to and saw – to her horror – as the dust cleared, that Unfezant was fine. The bird flapped her wings, gave a stubborn cry and swooped towards the battlefield.

"B-but how?!" Misty shrieked, stepping back, completely taken aback. "Ash…h-how…?"

Ash smirked, delighted that his plan had worked. Despite his feelings for his opponent, as long as they were battling he could push those feelings aside – he had already learned how to turn his mixed emotions of love and pain into battling strength. As long as the topic remained about Pokémon, he could talk normally to her without any sudden bursts of emotion.

"Easy," Ash scoffed. "It's an old trick, not that I guess you would remember…it happened at the Johto League; I figured using the tactic would work the same for Unfezant," said Ash, finishing his explanation. Misty's eyebrows furrowed as she tried to recall the memory, but to no avail. The raven-haired trainer decided not to wait for her. "Now, use Air Cutter!"

"Throw them back, Psychic!" Misty cried out, Psyduck quickly repelled all the Air Cutters back towards their sender.

"Dodge those!" Unfezant was quick to respond, Misty tensed in frustration at how fast the Proud Pokémon was, even after all the damage she had taken. "And use Double Team!" Quickly Unfezant made doubles of herself.

Misty frowned. "Blow them back, Psychic!"

"Go in and use Aerial Ace!" Unfezant dove quickly and struck Psyduck, the Duck Pokémon swayed a little, the force of the move causing him to lose his footing and he misfired, hitting some of the fakes, but missing a majority of the clones. "Now use Air Cutter!" Quickly once more, Unfezant pelted Psyduck with x-blades. Misty grimaced, Ash had taken the control of the battle away from her. She understood what Ash was doing, breaking Psyduck's concentration, preventing her Pokémon from being able to launch moves comfortably whilst his Pokémon got in damage, a few more hits, and Psyduck would be done in.

"We won't stand for this!" she then yelled. "Water Gun, now!" Psyduck's face hardened and fired his Water Gun. It hit the real Unfezant, causing the doubles to disappear.

"Air Cutter!" Ash countered. Unfezant fired once more, hitting Psyduck hard, the Duck writhed and squirmed as dust blew everywhere. "Now use Double Team!"

"What is he up to?! Damnit…!" Misty cried, frustrated. Quickly she ordered for Confusion, but Ash only ordered more Double Teams. Psyduck then was ordered to use Psychic, but with all of the clones, he was wasting time blowing the fakes away.

Ash smiled. "Unfezant, use Aerial Ace!"

"Un…FEZANT!" The Unfezants flapped their wings to back up, then went in and struck Psyduck, the Duck Pokémon tried to hit the real Unfezant, but once more only hit the fakes.

"Now, use Quick Attack!" The real Unfezant cried out, she flapped her wings passionately, and zoomed towards Psyduck – all of her doubles were gone, but now wasn't the time to play around.

"Ah! Use Water Gun!" cried Misty.

"Psy!" Psyduck fired, but Unfezant dodged it and struck him in the head. Psyduck was pushed onto his back and skidded along the rocks till he stopped in front of Misty.

"Ps-Psyduck…?" Misty asked, but as the dust cleared, Psyduck, still holding his head with his flippers, had swirls in his eyes.

Violet and Lily stared. "Psy…Psyduck is unable to battle," Violet uneasily announced, "Unfezant is the winner."

Misty blinked, shocked, she quickly ran to her Pokémon and held him in her arms. Luckily the Psyduck only began to moan from the pain of his headache as it finally began to register, Misty couldn't help but smile a little bit at how things had never changed with Psyduck, however the fact that Psyduck had finally been defeated in battle startled her – not that she really used Psyduck much at all in battle. But for a long time the Duck Pokémon had had a spotless record of never officially losing.

"Thanks for your hard work," Misty said to him before pulling out the Duck's Pokéball and recalling him into it.

Unfezant meanwhile was panting hard; she landed in front of Ash and tucked her wings in whilst trying to recover her stamina. Ash grimaced and wasn't in the mood to take a risk. "All right, time for a rest, Unfezant. Return. Thanks for your hard work." He then pocketed the ball and once more he grimly faced his opponent.

Misty wasn't sure what to say, she hadn't been expecting to lose twice in a row, and Ash still had all three of his Pokémon at the ready – not even Psyduck had been able to take one of Ash's options out. However Misty was far from someone who was willing to be underestimated. "Not bad, Ash," she began, trying to hide her nerves. Ash, for what it was worth, was unsure of her tone, but chose to ignore what Misty may have been feeling. "Not bad at all…" she continued, "but, you've yet to take on my strongest Pokémon yet. Come to think of it," she added, "you've never battled it before. Gyarados, I choose you!"

Ash's teeth gritted further as he watched the sea serpent materialize onto the battlefield. Gyarados gave a fierce battle cry and growled as it looked at Ash. It had heard of its master's former friend from both Misty herself, and the other Pokémon at the gym, the reputation Gyarados had heard had been a mixed bag.

Pikachu's eyes widened at the sight of Gyarados, he looked worriedly over at Ash, wondering if his trainer was going to break his vow to not go in with type advantage and use him to battle. But Ash wasn't one to purposefully break a promise, Pikachu thought, but he was left wondering who Ash would pick to battle the water/flying type. Ash looked at the Atrocious Pokémon. _I'll need someone with just as much tenacity as that Gyarados, but who to pick…?_ He took just a moment to think his decision over – at last a partner came to his mind and he quickly grabbed the Pokéball.

"I'm counting on you," he said to it. "Krookodile, I choose you!" Krookodile let out a mighty roar as he materialized onto the rocks. But when he saw the field he was on, his sweat dropped as he took in the water.

"Listen," Ash began, "I know it isn't an ideal field for you to battle on, but I really need you to pull through. You're fierce aren't you? This shouldn't be a problem at all for you, right?" he went on, pumping a fist, Ash's expression was determined and Krookodile couldn't help but smirk confidently and gave Ash a claw up.

"Ugh, what type is it?" Misty grumbled to herself, but she quickly shook the uncertainty that she felt off and immediately decided that it would make little difference. She knew Gyarados is a powerful Pokémon, and had won a number of times – even against electric-types. "Use Hydro Pump!"

Gyarados gave a fierce roar and fired the attack. However Ash stood strong. "Stone Edge!"

With his own roar Krookodile launched the rock-type attack, which collided with the Hydro Pump, cancelling it out. "Okay Gyarados, into the water!" Without fail Gyarados disappeared into the water. Ash grimaced.

"There's no telling where Gyarados might appear next," Ash murmured as his eyes darted left and right, with Krookodile doing the same.

"Use Hydro Pump!" Misty called.

"Uh oh! It'll show up right in front of you!" Ash yelled to Krookodile as a warning, before the mighty water-type burst out in front of him. It roared mightily before breathing in.

"All right," yelled Ash, "use your Dragon Claw!" So with speed that caught both Gyarados and its trainer off guard, Krookodile launched and struck the Atrocious Pokémon by its stomach with its claw. The water-type was clearly unamused by the attack, and quickly fired the Hydro Pump. It hit Krookodile in his lower torso, the Intimidation Pokémon cried out in pain.

"Don't give up," Ash called. "Try a Stone Edge!"

"Krooko!" he roared, and fired the pointed stones.

"Deflect those, use Hurricane!" Misty ordered. The Hurricane attack fired off, it blasted through the stones, causing some of them to dissipate or land in the water, and before Krookodile could dodge, he got swept up by the strong winds.

Krookodile was being tossed about in the crosswinds, as his body was being spun round and round. Suddenly, Ash had an idea. "Krookodile, ride the wind and use Aerial Ace!"

The Intimidation Pokémon wasn't in an ideal position, but quickly he sprawled his arms out and rode the wind towards Gyarados. "Now grab it!" Misty ordered. And before Krookodile could react, Gyarados flung out its tail – Krookodile was still feeling dazed was unable to dodge as the water-type took an iron grip of him with its tail. "Right," added Misty, "now use Crunch!"

Gyarados roared and was closing in on Krookodile with its jaw ready to attack.

Ash grimaced, but then he noticed something. "Use Crunch on Gyarados' tail!" he yelled. Krookodile opened his jaw, and took a huge bite of his opponent's tail to his left, which was left exposed to an attack.

Gyarados yelled in pain as it felt the Intimidation Pokémon's powerful jaw dig into its body, it quickly backed off; reeling from the significant damage it took. But Ash wasn't finished. "Follow with Dragon Claw."

And before Gyarados could get out of Krookodile's range, it was struck – in the face – by the dragon-type move.

"Gyarados, use Iron Tail!" ordered Misty. The Atrocious Pokémon tried to swing, but it was still clearly in pain as it hesitated, before it swung again. Krookodile easily dodged it, and under an order from Ash, launched a Stone Edge. "Another Hurricane!" was Misty's response.

The attack swept up the stones as well as Krookodile. "Ride the Hurricane, and use Aerial Ace!" shouted Ash.

 _That again?_ Thought Misty. But instead, Krookodile easily turned in the wind, and got behind Gyarados. "Catch that!" shouted Misty, but before Gyarados could focus on its opponent, Krookodile successfully hit it straight on. "Hurricane, again!"

Without missing a beat, once more Gyarados once more breathed in, and expelled out a huge wind storm, which blew Krookodile away. The Intimidation Pokémon hit the rocks hard, letting out a cry of pain as it did so. Ash growled as Krookodile stood up wearily, panting. _He can't keep this up, we're going to have to finish this and fast…_

Misty meanwhile was thinking the same thing. "Time to end this…Gyarados, use Hydro Pump!"

"Use Stone Edge!" thundered Ash. Both Pokémon roared fiercely and fired, Krookodile fired the stones, and Gyarados its water. They were both hit by the attack, when the attacks settled, it was clear both were very beaten up, but still standing.

The two Pokémon stared at each other, and smiled, and both fell forward – it was Gyarados however that fell all the way. Krookodile barely held on by his arms.

Violet bit her lip and raised a flag. "Gyarados is unable to battle, Krookodile is the winner! Which means the victor is the Unova Champion, Ash!"

Misty felt an odd feeling of despair go through her and she fell to her knees and put her hands down on the concrete. "I…lost," she whispered, trying to hold back tears. "A three to zero at that…" She braced herself for Ash's cheering, she was sure he'd want to celebrate his victory. Either that or he'd taunt her, call her weak. But she heard nothing.

She looked up to see a reaction, and was immediately unsettled. Ash's eyes were hidden under his can, and his lips contorted in a frown. She wondered if he was disappointed in her.

Ash continued to say nothing, he opened his eyes and he stared distantly at the water. "I won…" he said quietly to himself. "…but I don't feel satisfied or fulfilled at all…" Instead, he felt empty.

"Pika! Pikapi, pika Pikachu!" called his main partner, who ran towards him and patted him on his jeans.

"Thanks buddy," said Ash dryly. He turned to where Krookodile was. "And thanks to you too, you've earned a good long rest as the Pokémon Centre." And with that he recalled the Intimidation Pokémon, he had given both Pokémon a smile, but both – especially Pikachu – could tell it was forced. When the Krookodile was in his ball, Ash allowed his face to fall.

"Congrats on winning," Violet began to Ash, as she and Lily approached.

"Yeah, like, a total sweep was not what I was expecting. That was really cool to see," added Lily. Ash didn't answer, his expression was hardened, he only stared blankly at them before the sound of Misty recalling her Gyarados caught his attention – before Misty could say a word, Ash looked down at the water, unable to look her in the eyes. Something about his victory just felt cheap.

"Well," began Misty uneasily, as she stood up. "C-congratulations, Ash, you beat me. Pretty good at that…looks like you really have sharpened up." She tried to be happy, but deep down Misty felt thoroughly embarrassed, she lost, badly. In addition she was already acting sorry for herself over Tracey, Ash had every reason to be spiteful, she thought.

He didn't do any of what she thought he'd do however. She heard the sounds of his feet walking heavily back to the main floor. Misty looked up, and saw his eyes, they were devoid of all happiness, her own eyes widened as she took in the somber look he had.

"I'll be going to the Pokémon Centre to heal my Pokémon up, feel free to join, if you want…" He turned and walked away. Something in Misty clicked as she watched him go.

"Wait," she called out. He stopped, but he didn't turn around, he kept his eyelids down halfway as he stared distantly at the wet concrete. "I'll go with you," Misty said, more quietly. Ash felt a tug in his chest as she said that, he stuffed his hands into his pockets as he heaved a heavy breath to control himself from getting any ideas of Misty feeling sympathetic – there was zero chance of that for a jerk like him.

"Well, better to knock two birds with one stone," he replied, and returned to walking.

 **O** o **O** o **O**

The crowded streets of Cerulean City were cause for Ash to begin weaving his way through the crowd, but with his impatience to get to where he needed to go, he made long strides, and with his height he easily covered block after block, but Misty with her shorter legs had to run to keep up.

She panted as she pushed herself to the side to avoid hitting a small child heading in the opposite direction. "Sorry," she muttered to him, before bringing her attention back to Ash. "Wait up, idiot! Geez, what is this, a race? You could stand to be more patient," she scolded.

Ash abruptly halted and turned to look at her. Misty glared up at him, hands on her hips. "Well?" she asked. "Or are you waiting for me to say thank you for tiring me out with your light jogging?" The boy casted his gaze down to the bricks, he could see how mad he had made her, and his chest tightened as her glare burned into his mind. Pikachu cooed sadly, guessing at what his trainer was thinking.

"I'm sorry," he said quietly.

Misty blinked, she had been expecting Ash to retaliate, say something in fury or make fun of her for being so short and slow, but instead, he apologized, and his offence wasn't even significant. "What are you sorry for?" But before he could answer she continued on. "It's not as if I was being serious, so it's all right," Misty said, she looked up to be greeted by Ash's still melancholic, but also partly perplexed expression. "So I don't mind you hurrying, I'm not mad."

"Oh," murmured Ash, feeling slightly relieved, but he still felt down in the dumps. Misty didn't say a word and gave him a push from behind to get him moving.

"For a guy who just beat me three to nothing, you sure could use a confidence boost," she joked. Ash didn't respond and kept his rather depressed state up – it wasn't that he couldn't appreciate the humor, but the one saying it did little to improve his mood. He himself couldn't get why she was humoring him. In his eyes, he was to her a jerk, a dense fool who couldn't outwardly admit he had a clue, an obsessed love driven freak that couldn't get over a childhood crush after he saw her with her boyfriend…

Misty frowned when she realized Ash never responded, unaware of his internal beating. She pushed him into the Pokémon Centre and walked up to his pockets and dug his Pokeballs out for him whilst ignoring his rather quiet protests, before handing them over to Nurse Joy.

"Okay you," she said, pushing him down to sit on a bench in the lobby. She then joined him on his left. "I don't know what your problem is, but we both know how stubborn you can be so I won't push it." Misty kept it to herself that she didn't want to have another argument with him; their earlier spats had been quite emotionally draining for her. "After all, you've got problems, I've got problems…" She trailed off as she quietly dug the toes of a foot of hers into the carpet before facing Ash again.

"…But there is something I want to ask of you."

Ash raised his eyes to meet hers. "Yeah…?"

Misty gulped, and twiddled her thumbs. "After today…well you saw…and well…y-you…" She dipped head into a bow. "Please train me to become a better Pokémon trainer like you are!"

 **O** o **O** o **O**

 **Author's Note:** Hello people! After leaving this project on the backburner for a bit, it has returned (COUGHS though I still need to get the harem story going again but _man_ the motivation is sadly not there)!

After taking a long break from it on account of real life, I'll be real, it was difficult to return to this after I left off writing it after I started the Krookodile vs Gyarados fight, so going for that really depressing tone was tough after a while. But anyways, when this'll next be updated down the line I'd be nearly done with the writing.


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